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The Last of Us series and a worrying question: are mushrooms a health risk?

2023-01-25T09:38:50.843Z


In fiction, a fungus starts a pandemic. In reality, specialists explain how they are spread and who can be affected.


We know that

bacteria

are fought with antibiotics and, due to Covid 19, we have become a bit of an expert on

viruses

, their forms of transmission, risk groups and the importance of vaccines.

What would be falling

off the radar

is what happens with

fungi

.

Last week

The Last of Us

premiered , a series that poses a dystopian scenario in which humanity is affected by this pathogen.

It is science fiction (fortunately) but it serves to put this issue on the agenda, which the World Health Organization (WHO) also referred to a few months ago, which released a list of

19 fungi considered "of concern".

Two mycology specialists respond to

Clarín

in this regard: how many are there, where are they, how are they spread, what treatments exist and if they may be associated with a threat to health in the future.

Roxana Vitale, a CONICET researcher, specialist in medical mycology and head of the Mycology service at the Ramos Mejía Hospital, says that there are

more than a million fungi

distributed among humans, animals and plants and that there are

700 that have been described as agents of infection of people.

According to specialists, fungal infections have different origins.

The

severity of these infections will depend on many factors: the type of fungus, the way the infection develops and, to a large extent, the

host

.

How do they spread?

"Infections can be given by

contact, inhalation

or as a consequence of

trauma

," Vitale details.

With contact it refers to petting an infected animal or touching surfaces such as the floor of a shower in which certain humidity conditions exist that make it possible to spread what is known, for example, as

athlete's foot

.

Contagion by trauma occurs when the person is pricked by 

thorns from trees, plants or wood splinters

.

"In some cases, the disease associated with the fungus develops quickly and in others, late," says the specialist.

Fungi

do not only affect the skin or nails

, nor are they always superficial.

“There are also deep infections that usually occur by

inhalation

and generally affect immunosuppressed people.

These are 

opportunistic fungi

, which precisely take advantage of the lack of defenses ”, he maintains.

deep infections

It refers to

infections that can damage the central nervous system, the lungs or other organs

and highlights that the vast majority of those affected are immunosuppressed patients.

"The conditions among immunosuppressed patients tend to worsen in up to 7% of cases," he says, explaining that contaminated environments are not necessarily closed or dirty.

The environment may appear clean.

 "You don't have to have a damp patch on the wall to have fungus. Even outdoors, mold can be found in pigeon or bat feces. Breathing in that space can lead to contagion," she warns.

Infections of this style

are treatable

.

"There are

antifungals

that can be topical, administered orally and intravenously," he says.

However, recently the WHO presented a report on

19 types of fungi "of concern"

for being resistant to drugs.

Among them, the candida auris stood out, which had two affected in Argentina in November last year.

“This is an infection that usually occurs in

hospitals

and generates severe damage among patients with

low defenses,”

Vitale points out.

He says that drug resistance is a problem, but that "there are different drugs to try to

counteract the adaptation mechanisms of some fungi

to be eliminated."

“The most important thing is

suspicion, to reach a diagnosis quickly.

This is not so easy, because you can't suspect something you don't know about.

For this reason, it is essential to deal with these issues, to understand that

the infection is not always due to a virus or a bacterium

, that sometimes there are also fungi or there may be a

coinfection of different pathogens

”, he adds.

The detection occurs from the

taking of samples

, of blood, tissues, respiratory material or urine, as the case may be.

On the possibility that fungi could pose a massive threat, as happened with the coronavirus pandemic, Vitale says he

"doesn't think it will happen."

“There may be small outbreaks, but most likely they will not spread.

In principle, because they

almost always affect immunosuppressed people and not the general population

.

In addition, they require

very specific conditions of temperature and humidity

”, he comments.

Guillermo García Effron, main researcher at Conicet and professor of Mycology at the Universidad Nacional del Litoral, agrees with Vitale about the risks of infections by some fungi and their scope.

“The key to pandemics is that

the pathogen affects immunocompetent patients and with fungi that is the exception and not the rule

.

In the vast majority of cases, it causes damage in the immunosuppressed and the contagion is not registered directly from person to person, ”he highlights.

And he explains that "there are endemic areas in which, due to climatic conditions, certain fungi develop that can affect immunocompetent patients, although they

are limited to specific places

and, therefore, they are usually controlled"

the local situation

"Argentina is one of the only countries in which there are

three fungi that affect patients who are not immunosuppressed,"

says García Effron

.

One

is

histoplasma

, which has its endemic zone in part of the Litoral, Buenos Aires and Chaco.

It is spread by inhalation and is associated with the feces of some animals, ”he says.

And he says that a while ago there was an outbreak among the military who cleaned a warehouse with bat feces.

Another of the fungi is the

paracoccidiodes

, endemic to the area of ​​Entre Ríos, Santa Fe and Chaco that is present, in general, in the

land of the armadillo caves

.

The third is the

coccidiodes

, which is found in arid areas of the provinces of Catamarca and Santiago del Estero.

“When soil is blown up by the wind, people residing in those areas can get infected,” he shares.

"In our laboratory in Santa Fe we are working to improve the possibilities of diagnosis," says the specialist.

And he assures that much remains to be done on this issue.

"We observe that, for example, histoplasma infection

manifests itself in a similar way to tuberculosis

and even on an x-ray it looks similar. Doctors tend to give antibiotics against the bacteria without thinking that it may actually be this fungus" , he explains, and emphasizes that fungi should be considered as agents of infection.

The Last Of Us series can be seen on HBO.

What is

The Last of Us about?

The series begins with a doctor warning that the next threat to humanity might not be caused by a virus or bacteria, but by a fungus.

In addition, he warns about

the existence of a type of fungus that affects the nerve channels of ants

and that, if the temperature of the planet increases, it could adapt to the point of affecting humans.

The plot describes the experiences of Joel and Ellie, who survived a pandemic caused by a fungus, which, when infecting humans, turns them into

cannibalistic creatures

, and which is transmitted through a simple bite.

The Last of Us

, which premiered on HBO Max, is based on a video game that was released in 2013.

SC

look too

"The Last of Us": Is there the Cordyceps fungus that could end humanity according to the HBO series?

Why The Last of Us managed to break "the curse of video games" brought to the screen

Source: clarin

All life articles on 2023-01-25

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