Are fungal threats creating a world like The Last of Us?
According to a new study, Candida auris, which was first discovered in 2009, has become an increasingly serious threat to public health worldwide.
According to reports, the deadly fungus, which is highly resistant to common drugs, has created many diagnostic and treatment challenges as it spreads in various countries, including the United States; so that researchers emphasize the urgent need to develop new antifungal drugs, improve diagnostic tests and invent vaccine-based methods to combat this crisis.
Scientists warn of the global spread of deadly Candida auris fungus
Research published in the journal Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews shows that the global outbreak of Candida auris has been steadily increasing since it was first identified in the ear of a patient in Japan (in 2009). The pathogen has now been reported in more than 50 countries and has spread to 39 states in the United States alone, with more than 4,500 cases recorded in 2023. The main danger of this fungus lies in the inadequacy of conventional diagnostic tools, as it is often mistaken for other microbial species, leading to delays in patient treatment. Shocking statistics show that fungal infections in general kill nearly 4 million people worldwide each year, a figure that has almost doubled in the past decade. Candida auris holds a special place in this; this fungus can live asymptomatically on human skin, but once it enters the body of people with weakened immune systems, it causes widespread and life-threatening infections. Research suggests that about a third of hospitalized patients with the fungus die, and the mortality rate is about 50 percent if the infection enters the bloodstream.
What has made Candida auris a medical nightmare is its unique ability to resist drugs. Some strains of the fungus have been identified as pan-resistant, meaning they resist all four major classes of antifungal drugs. In addition, scientists warn that the fungus may be one of the first emerging diseases caused by climate change; evidence suggests that Candida auris has acquired the ability to make humans sick after adapting to rising ambient temperatures that are similar to human body temperature.
Despite these worrying circumstances, scientific efforts to combat this threat continue. In 2023, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug Rezafungin for the treatment of invasive Candida auris infections, and several other promising drugs are in the final stages of development. There are also advances in the development of vaccines that can provide protection against a wide range of fungal pathogens. The ultimate goal of researchers such as Professor Neeraj Chauhan is to uncover the molecular mechanisms of this pathogen in order to develop new preventive and therapeutic strategies, identifying and controlling the fungus' vulnerabilities before the horror scenarios of science fiction become reality.
References:
Gizmodo.
Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. DOI.