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Could the next public health crisis be caused by a fungus?
The threat of such an emergency is posed at the outset of the hit TV series, The Last Of Us, which begins in the 1960s with a bleak speech by an epidemiologist on the danger of fungi.
“If the world were to get slightly warmer, then there is reason to evolve,” warns a prescient John Hannah, referencing their potential to infect and overpower a person’s mind.
“Candida, ergot, cordyceps, aspergillus: any one of them could be capable of burrowing into our brains and taking control of not millions of us, but billions.”
The show takes this idea and runs with it, jumping forward 40 years to when a mass cordyceps outbreak leads to a devastating pandemic which transforms people into blood-thirsty abominations.
An extreme outcome with plenty of artistic licence taken – but is it entirely without scientific basis?
Do fungi really threaten humans?
“There are already fungi inhabiting the brains of human beings all over the planet,” says Professor Elaine Bignell, a world leader in the field of human fungal pathogen research.
“A number of fungi species are quite prominent pathogens and kill hundreds of thousands of people every year – it’s just that the public is not aware.”
The Last Of Us viewers may have noted that a few of the dangers identified by its fictional epidemiologist featured last year on a list of health-threatening fungi by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Among the ones deemed most high-risk was Aspergillus fumigatus, a common mould that is widespread in the environment in homes and outdoors, which can cause “chronic and acute lung disease” and can be deadly.
Aspergillus is a type of mould, common in homes
Candida species,…
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