There has been a surge in cases of deadly fungal outbreaks since the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists are warning.
According to Bloomberg, the pandemic helped drive the spread of these deadly fungal diseases, and a warming planet may help them adapt and spread.
One particular species, Candida auris, “clings to the surface of medical equipment in hospitals and thrives in chronically ill people with weak immune systems,” and although it isn’t the most common form of fungal infection, kills as many as half who are infected with it.
New analysis shows that C. auris outbreaks are on the rise since the pandemic, appearing on “every continent except Antarctica.”
“Severe illness-causing fungal outbreaks have also start occurring among young, healthy people, signaling the pathogens’ growing strength,” Bloomberg says.
Incidences of C. auris infection have tripled between 2018 and 2021, and increased more than sixfold in China in the same period.
Fungal infections are part of a “plethora of lesser-known pathogens that are driving a surge in severe disease in the post-Covid world.” Other diseases include flesh-eating bacteria in Japan that can kill within 48 hours, as seen in Japan, and ulcerating sores transmitted by sand flies in the US.
The growing heat resistance of fungi is a particular concern to researchers, because it means they can tolerate the human body’s 37 degrees C, which is usually enough to kill fungi. The global increase in mean temperatures is being blamed for this adaptation.
The pandemic has also played a role, by disrupting human interaction and altering people’s exposure to pathogens globally for a period of years.
“Covid-19 changed the disease ecosystem of this planet by shutting down the world and limiting our interaction with each other for years. Some diseases were wiped out for a period of time, but as we came back together, the pathogens diseases took advantage,” said the WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director at WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention.
“While the world has largely returned to pre-Covid interactions, the virus still circulates, and the pandemic’s public health, economic and mental health impacts are still ricocheting through societies.”
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