Researchers Warn Some Infectious Fungus Could Spread as Earth's Temperatures Rise (cnn.com) 30
Around the world fungal infections kill an estimated 2.5 million people a year, notes a report from CNN. But new research predicts that certain species of infection-causing Aspergillus fungi could spread into new areas as the earth's temperature rises. ("The study, published this month, is currently being peer reviewed...")
Aspergillus fungi grow like small filaments in soils all over the world. Like almost all fungi, they release huge numbers of tiny spores that spread through the air. Humans inhale spores every day but most people won't experience any health issues; their immune system clears them. It's a different story for those with lung conditions including asthma, cystic fibrosis and COPD, as well as people with compromised immune systems, such as cancer and organ transplant patients, and those who have had severe flu or Covid-19. If the body's immune system fails to clear the spores, the fungus "starts to grow and basically kind of eat you from the inside out, saying it really bluntly," said Norman van Rijn, one of the study's authors and a climate change and infectious diseases researcher at the University of Manchester. Aspergillosis has very high mortality rates at around 20% to 40%, he said. It's also very difficult to diagnose, as doctors don't always have it on their radar and patients often present with fevers and coughs, symptoms common to many illnesses. Fungal pathogens are also becoming increasingly resistant to treatment, van Rijn added. There are only four classes of antifungal medicines available...
Aspergillus flavus, a species that tends to prefer hotter, tropical climates, could increase its spread by 16% if humans continue burning large amounts of fossil fuels, the study found... [Mainly in parts of Europe and the northernmost edges of Scandinavia, Russia, China, and Canada, and the western edge of Alaska.] This species can cause severe infections in humans and is resistant to many antifungal medications. It also infects a range of food crops, posing a potential threat to food security. The World Health Organization added Aspergillus flavus to its critical group of fungal pathogens in 2022 because of its public health impact and antifungal resistance risk...
Conversely, temperatures in some regions, including sub-Saharan Africa, could become so hot they are no longer hospitable to Aspergillus fungi. This could bring its own problems, as fungi play an important role in ecosystems, including healthy soils. As well as expanding their growing range, a warming world could also be increasing fungi's temperature tolerance, allowing them to better survive inside human bodies. Extreme weather events such as drought, floods and heatwaves can affect fungi, too, helping to spread spores over long distances.
Thanks to Slashdot reader quonset for sharing the article.
Aspergillus flavus, a species that tends to prefer hotter, tropical climates, could increase its spread by 16% if humans continue burning large amounts of fossil fuels, the study found... [Mainly in parts of Europe and the northernmost edges of Scandinavia, Russia, China, and Canada, and the western edge of Alaska.] This species can cause severe infections in humans and is resistant to many antifungal medications. It also infects a range of food crops, posing a potential threat to food security. The World Health Organization added Aspergillus flavus to its critical group of fungal pathogens in 2022 because of its public health impact and antifungal resistance risk...
Conversely, temperatures in some regions, including sub-Saharan Africa, could become so hot they are no longer hospitable to Aspergillus fungi. This could bring its own problems, as fungi play an important role in ecosystems, including healthy soils. As well as expanding their growing range, a warming world could also be increasing fungi's temperature tolerance, allowing them to better survive inside human bodies. Extreme weather events such as drought, floods and heatwaves can affect fungi, too, helping to spread spores over long distances.
Thanks to Slashdot reader quonset for sharing the article.
Yes, yes, we all saw the documentary (Score:3)
https://youtu.be/OLNagvJHl3g?t... [youtu.be]
Re:Yes, yes, we all saw the documentary (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, why not?
I didn't get a whole bunch of diseases because of vaccines - variola, polio, mumps, hepatitis, TB, whooping cough, diphteria... I don't even remember them all.
You think I'd rather have died a 10 year old non-autistic child instead of living to be an autistic old fart?
You're wrong. You're wrong about that autism thing, too.
You can't win with the anti-vax twats (Score:2)
In America our 1% is going to take about 7 trillion dollars out of the economy. Yeah they're going to hurt a lot of poor people but they're going to hurt a lot of middle class people who depend on that spending.
If you're going to do that to somebody who votes then you need to offer them something in return. Some reason for them to i
Re: (Score:2)
Not just Aspergillus (Score:1)
Other infectious fungi are also expected to spread as a result of climate change:
"Risks from fungal infections such as blastomycosis are likely to increase with climate change-associated shifts in temperature and rainfall, and this may contribute to the geographic expansion of cases, a phenomenon that appears to be already underway."
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11542677/
Two-way Street (Score:2)
pffft (Score:2)
There's a fungus among-us. (Score:2)
Re: "just move north"
Canada won't let us in, too many are applying and we're not sending our best.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: "just move north"
Canada won't let us in, too many are applying and we're not sending our best.
I hear we're working on fixing that
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe biologists and doctors should consider (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yogurt is produced by bacterial fermentation and not by an yeast. Cheese is made using enzymes, not yeasts or bacteria.
Re: Maybe biologists and doctors should consider (Score:2)
Some cheese contain delicious mold.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes biologists have considered whatever the fuck you're thinking of. Because they have spent their entire lives studying the topic in detail.
Why the hell do you think a random dipshit on a dying internet forum has the key to solving a crisis that doesn't even need to exist in the first place if we would just do something about climate change?
The answer is that you know the shit is about to hit the fan and you don't want
Re: (Score:2)
You are proposing scientists terraform the Earth -- something we're centuries, if not millennia from knowing how to do.
Take a single cubic meter of dirt from your back yard. That is practically a world in itself, far beyond the capabilities of current science to understand. That's because there are millions of organisms, and thousands of species interacting there and billions of chemical interactions per second. Of the microbes, only about 1% of the species can be cultured and studied in a lab, the rest
Fungus among us (Score:2)
It's nature's revenge ... (Score:1)
... for all those mushrooms I keep, um, let's just say "consuming."
But it's delicious! (Score:2)
What? Oh wait, nevermind.
Super Layman Brothers (Score:2)
I've said it before but it bears repeating. (Score:1)
It's too late.
We now have enough CO2 in the atmosphere that +2C is inevitable. Even if we stopped today. (and stopping will cause it to rise further as the haze stops blocking some incoming heat). It's just going to take time for the incoming energy to be trapped and build up to that new equilibrium point. Probably by 2035.
And by 2050, we will have enough CO2 in the atmosphere that +3C is inevitable by 2060. Nothing reasonable is going to change that.
It's possible that declining population and new tech