After COVID-19, Fungi Could Be The Source Of Our Next Pandemic: Experts Warn
COVID-19 pandemic is not even over, and experts have already warned that a future pandemic is possible and the source of it will be fungi. Yes, you heard that right. Being known as one of the most diverse and versatile organisms present in the environment we are living in, experts believe that fungi are a potential source of a future pandemic.
Wondering how fungi can cause such a big health threat globally? Experts say, the benefits of fungi, some of which includes - brewer's yeast, mushrooms, Roquefort cheese and the production of antibiotics such as penicillin are very much known to almost everyone. But, there are very few who know about the health threats fungi can pose. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic we now know how fungi can turn into a source for a pandemic.
In 2019, when the world had a standstill due to the emergence of the deadly SAR-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 infection, there was one more thing that came into the limelight. The real threat posed by zoonotic viruses, which jump from animals to humans. However, out of all, the risk raised by the pathogenic fungi received the maximum highlight.
During the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, roughly in mid-2021, reports about serious fungal infections in patients with severe cases of COVID-19 emerged from various parts of the world. Some also reported suffering from fungal infection post-COVID recovery. Many patients were also diagnosed with severe respiratory infections from a mould called aspergillosis; invasive yeast infections; and, particularly in India, a serious but rare fungal infection, mucormycosis or black fungus infection, which leads to prolonged severe illness and death.
Several reports have shown that in the southwestern United States, and in Central and South America, the fungal pathogen which is a major source of the deadly Valley fever, coccidioidomycosis, has long been recognised as a threat to animals and people especially because it is very commonly found in soil. According to the reports, cases of Valley fever have seen a steady spike in recent times. However, the geographical scale of vulnerable populations is expanding as climate change enlarges the sandy desert zones where the fungus, Coccidioides immitis, grows.
Candida Auris is a species of fungus that usually grows as yeast. It is also one of the rare species of the genus Candida that causes candidiasis in humans. Candida Auris is also known as a multidrug-resistant yeast that causes invasive infection and death. Experts say that this fungi poses one of the most urgent threats of a new pathogen-driven pandemic. It may be the first example of a new deadly pathogen emerging from human-induced climate change because of its simultaneous appearance on three continents which can only explained by a large-scale environmental shift.
Pathogen fungi Candida Auris was first identified in 2009. It is not known to be directly transmissible from human to human. But its persistence in environmental settings, on surfaces and on everyday objects shows that it is capable of spreading rapidly in hospital settings and natural ecosystems. Scary isn't it?
Experts also say that Candida Auris is an emerging poster pathogen for the One Health approach, which considers the influence of environments shared between humans and animals, and better coordination of local and international strategies for pandemic prevention and response.
(With inputs from Agencies)
