Climate Change Could Make Fungi More Dangerous To Human Health
Higher environmental temperatures may trigger mutations in fungi that lead to increased infectivity, more aggressive growth, or to resistance to multiple anti-fungal medications.
Β© by GrrlScientist for Forbes | LinkTr.ee
Public health officials have long been concerned that rising temperatures on Earth could trigger fungi to become more harmful to people. Oh, sure, some people get ringworm or nail infections, and some women repeatedly get yeast infections, but other than those instances, fungal infections have not been exceptionally problematic. This, however, is changing.
An international team of medical researchers and infectious disease specialists based in China collaborated with a researcher from Singapore and another from Canada, and together, they found troubling evidence suggesting that, as the planet warms, fungi could indeed become more dangerous to humans.
Ordinarily, mammals are naturally protected from most fungal infections because fungi are cold-adapted organisms that grow best in temperatures that are cooler than those found in and on the bodies of mammals. As a result, fungi cause far fewer diseases in mammals than do bacteria and viruses. But infectious disease experts have been warning that fungi have the potential to adapt to rapidly warmingβ¦
