Dangerous Fungi Are Spreading Across US as Temperatures Rise (wsj.com) 69
Dangerous fungal infections are on the rise, and a growing body of research suggests warmer temperatures might be a culprit. From a report: The human body's average temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit has long been too hot for most fungi to thrive, infectious-disease specialists say. But as temperatures have risen globally, some fungi might be adapting to endure more heat stress, including conditions within the human body, research suggests. Climate change might also be creating conditions for some disease-causing fungi to expand their geographical range, research shows.
"As fungi are exposed to more consistent elevated temperatures, there's a real possibility that certain fungi that were previously harmless suddenly become potential pathogens," said Peter Pappas, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Deaths from fungal infections are increasing, due in part to growing populations of people with weakened immune systems who are more vulnerable to severe fungal disease, public-health experts said. At least 7,000 people died in the U.S. from fungal infections in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, up from hundreds of people each year around 1970. There are few effective and nontoxic medications to treat such infections, they said.
"As fungi are exposed to more consistent elevated temperatures, there's a real possibility that certain fungi that were previously harmless suddenly become potential pathogens," said Peter Pappas, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Deaths from fungal infections are increasing, due in part to growing populations of people with weakened immune systems who are more vulnerable to severe fungal disease, public-health experts said. At least 7,000 people died in the U.S. from fungal infections in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, up from hundreds of people each year around 1970. There are few effective and nontoxic medications to treat such infections, they said.
Ermagerd! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ermagerd! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just stealth advertising for "The Last of Us."
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I've never heard of it. I assume it's a movie or a video game? The summary doesn't say anything about it. The article is paywalled. Doesn't sound like a very effective ad.
You, however, did mention it.
Re: Ermagerd! (Score:1)
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I think normal, boring, death and debilitation is more likely to be the outcome of new diseases. Not a zombie apocalypse.
But I see how a certain type of mind would be drawn to a more "entertaining" prospect and seek to inject it into reality. The same kind who rapturously consume covid conspiracies, AIDS conspiracies, and so on down through the history of infectious disease.
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Which is kinda what I'm assuming the entire point of this article is. Probably some lonely science nerd that got too doped up to remember they watched the beginning of the beginning of the HBO show (which stars with a theoretical talk from an expert on fungi speaking about exactly this possible scenario if global temperatures rise) and thought they had come up with a novel new way to scare the shit out of people. Of course the media loves it, because it should, if true, scare the shit out of people. We just
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Holy crap, my inner editor took the afternoon off. Sorry grammar nazis. Believe me, I'm hating myself for the above too.
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Said the person confident that HE won't get a mycosis from one of the spreading fungi. Good luck finding a doctor who even knows what is that infection.
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The point is that it went from hundreds of cases a year to over 7000 in 50 years. Not exactly the next great mass extinction event but something interesting to study.
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Re:Ermagerd! (Score:4)
So a 50% increase in population leads to about a 1000% increase in lethal fungal infections? That seems unlikely to be the only cause.
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Fungus is a lot more complex than virii and bacteria. Is resistance really a thing?
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It's really mostly our relatively high metabolic heat output that keeps fungal infections limited to areas where temperatures are relatively low, like the skin. There are some fungi like yeasts that can survive much higher temperatures and can infect many internal organ
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The fungi are everywhere. Anyone who has lived in the Ohio or Mississippi River valleys for any length of time has had a mycotic infection, usually numerous ones, as can be seen on a chest X-ray (they leave small calcifications in the lung).
Re:Ermagerd! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Ermagerd! (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I won't be part of the .002%
You and the other person I think focus on the wrong parts here. Cleaning fugal infestations and medical care for fugal infections are expensive. Like just the medical side of things (both direct and indirect costs) are conservatively estimated at $11.5 billion and could be as high as $48 billion [oup.com]. Which puts it up there for costs in medical terms. Mostly because as you put it, it's only 0.002% or the population who die from it. But even if you don't die from it, you're walking away with a pretty substantial bill, that's going to be difficult for insurance to help you make it go away.
I think that's the thing people tend to forget about all this medical shit. Shoot, dying ain't the bad part, they can't make a corpse pay the bill. Like COVID, yeah it's taking out a good bit of the population but, y'know, it's just 1%. But dying from COVID isn't the worse outcome. If you've got to have an ECMO and 24/7 supervision, on May 11th, the Government isn't helping pay your insurance bills any more. You're looking at seven figures before insurance.
The thing is, these things aren't cheap to treat if they get serious. That's all I'm saying. The death part, that's a not really a big deal, we all going at some point. It's the 30 years of your life paying the bill part that's, IMHO, more important here. You get this and if it's bad, man you are ending up with a life crippling bill. I don't know why anyone thinks the rate of death is the important part? Clearly a lot of you all haven't ever had serious medical expenses.
Also. We've all got to understand something here. Science is reporting a fact and the Wall Street Journal is reporting it. Now I read the article, yeah, they amped up what the paper at the heart of this story [pnas.org] is saying. The bigger point is heat stress stimulates TE mobility in the Cryptococcus genome. Which is pretty damn neat in that the sequence of the fungus is changing to adapt to warmer temperatures providing for evidence that mobile elements are likely to facilitate microevolution and rapid adaptation during infection. Now that's pretty cool in my opinion. One, that the fungus genome can do this. Two, meaning that a more rapidly evolving fungus is going to make our already limited treatment options pretty shit. But I think the entire rapidly moving sequences bit is pretty damn cool in terms of DNA doesn't usually do that. I mean there's obvious cases and conditions where this happens but for this fungus with those modes, that's pretty unique and neat.
Anyways, that's the point of the paper and WSJ takes that and runs with the "we're all going to die!" aspect. Maybe, maybe not, I mean this paper isn't really pointing toward any kind of conclusion in that respect. It's just saying that it's going to make it more "interesting" trying to fight infections. So you all have to keep a keen awareness of the difference between the actual scientist that are reporting and WSJ. I know everyone loves to say science is chicken little, but they're just reporting on findings. Take it as you want it, because clearly the WSJ is going to take it to mean we're all going to die.
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Meh. Just smear some horse cream on it.
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I had a great time reading the Amazon reviews. The complaints about the taste were the best. This was supposed to be apple flavored! Uh buddy I don't think the horse was the one complaining there.
Fixed that for you (Score:3, Insightful)
The scientifically literate are running out of ideas to keep us alive.
Re:Ermagerd! (Score:5, Insightful)
Clickbait...? (Score:1)
From the summary :
Deaths from fungal infections are increasing, due in part to growing populations of people with weakened immune systems who are more vulnerable to severe fungal disease, public-health experts said. At least 7,000 people died in the U.S. from fungal infections in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, up from hundreds of people each year around 1970. There are few effective and nontoxic medications to treat such infections, they said.
Look at the last sentence... Few nont
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jeez, you're a fungi to be around
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Peter Pappas, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
Well I will grant you that Alabama is last (or nearly) in all education metrics but he doesn't seem like a warmonger. http://scholars.uab.edu/displa... [uab.edu]
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Some items to note:
The average human body temperature is getting lower. That 98.6 number is now more like 97.8. The lower it goes, the easier it is for fungal infections to take hold.
Fungal infections are hard to get under control. The biological similarities between us and fungus make it really difficult to find medicines that hurt the fungus and that don't hurt us. The cure is poison.
God only knows the knock on, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, and completely unintended side effects of global genetic e
Bye, bye viral marketing, Welcome Fungal Marketing (Score:3, Funny)
Great (Score:2)
Just started watching The Last Of Us.
Oh no! (Score:2)
There's a fungus among us.
Deaths from fungal infections are increasing.. (Score:1)
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The zombies are already among us. See congress.
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Ok they are just staring at it constantly, but technically they are operating it.
Re:Deaths from fungal infections are increasing.. (Score:4, Insightful)
The real infection is from "the base" which is growing and infecting the minds of previously rational people.
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Joking aside, I imagine climate change will bring about unanticipated problems in addition to the expected general weather pattern changes.
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Post Pandemic (Score:2)
fungal infections are still hard to diagnose (Score:3)
Note that 50 years ago these were almost impossible to diagnose. The tests to diag fungal infections are custom and have to be specifically requested and are only done by one or 2 labs for each different fungus variant test. And we also are using a lot more drugs that compromise the immune system producing a larger number of people that can get the infection.
Note that I personally know someone who was (taking cellcept for lupus) somewhat immuno-compromised and initially had a lung histoplasmosis infection(no idea how long they had this), that eventually moved to dissemiated infection (they had this for 12-18 months at least, and doctors did not diagnose it in this stage even though they suspect a fungal infection and were doing a lot of tests for different infections). That person was given an IV RITUXAN immuno-supressive and that allowed it to move to the brain. It took 3 days in ICU before I asked for a spinal tap (to relieve suspected pressure on the brain) and they saw yeast growing in the spinal fluid (that should have nothing in it) and then they then asked for the specific fungal tests to be run, and that confirmed what the infection was. This was in a US based level-1 trauma center ICU in the last 10 years, and by the time they figured it out, it was too late for the patient. I would bet that today there are less fungal infections that are being missed (but still quite a lot, and some may only be found by the medical examiner--if they are competent enough to do their job--so there are probably cases missed here also).
I think we are only seeing an increase around their being more medically immuno-comprimised patients (see advertisements that say "tell your doctor if you are from an area with a risk of fungal infections"), and the rest of the infections were always there, but the real cause of death (ie unknown infection was the cause of death) was being missed. The trend may simple be because we can diagnose it.
Eeeek! (Score:2)
There's a fungus among us!
The habitable zone has increased. (Score:3, Insightful)
Simple Explanation.
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Let the fucking kids go outside to play.
Unpaywalled and superior link (Score:4, Interesting)
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r... [sciencedaily.com]
suggests (Score:2)
Suggests might. or might not. yeah, probably not.
Let's hope so (Score:1, Troll)
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Unfortunately those areas are already warm, so they already have the fungus, and it's people further north you have to worry about now.
NOW it's hot? (Score:2)
The human body's average temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit has long been too hot for most fungi to thrive, infectious-disease specialists say. But as temperatures have risen globally, some fungi might be adapting to endure more heat stress,
Um, there are large swaths of the US where it is routinely above 98.6, and has been for long before there was climate change. This is one of the most hair-brained 'theories' I have ever heard.
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Linux (Score:2)
Re: Linux (Score:1)
Nah, that's not fungus. It's just rusting.
Another factor (Score:1)
Valley Fever... (Score:1)
Politicians in the area work hard to deny the existence, for fear of the potential bad stigma.
Yet, I know folks that have "caught" it and died from the indirect pathogenic affects.
Ask the Mayo Clinic.
It gets into people via breathing - especially during and after a haboob (wind storm) that kicks-up dust, uncovering growths and spreading it.
From the lungs, it works it's way i