Climate change helps dangerous fungi to better ‘infect and invade’ humans, experts warn
Climate change is accelerating the spread of dangerous fungi, pushing the organisms to adapt to better “infect and invade” people, senior American health officials have warned.
Although fungal pathogens have long affected humans, experts on Wednesday said the threat is increasing due to global warming.
The warning comes as Asia swelters in a record-breaking heatwave, while scientists this week predicted that temperatures will likely rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels at some point before 2027 – a key threshold that’s seen as an irreversible tipping point.
“Since many of these fungal pathogens typically exist in nature, they’re not as well adapted to human or mammalian body temperatures at 37 degrees centigrade,” said Dr Michael Kurilla, a director of the US National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, a department within the National Institutes of Health.
“But with global warming, they are actually adapting… [it is] becoming much easier for fungi to colonise and infect and invade citizens, as well as other mammalian species,” he told an online briefing.
‘It’s coming to be a perfect storm’
Of particular concern is Candida auris, which has a fatality rate between 30 and 72 per cent.
First identified in Japan in 2009, it has since been spotted in more than 30 countries, including Britain – England reported 295 cases between 2013 and 2020. The US, meanwhile, has reported at least 7,413 infections.
“What strikes one as especially devastating is the impact on individual patients,” said Dr Walsh, founding director of the Centre for Innovative Therapeutics and Diagnostics, adding that it can take more than 18 months of back and forth to identify and treat the fungi.
Candida auris is also incredibly difficult to kill once it’s lodged itself in bedding and on other surfaces – which has led to outbreaks in hospitals across the world. The fungi also exploits weakened immune systems and is very drug-resistant.
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said last month it is deemed an “urgent” threat, as cases almost doubled in 2021 and in some areas most cases are resistant to at least one antifungal treatment.
“It’s coming to be a perfect storm,” said Dr Prabhavathi Fernandes, a World Health Organization advisor and chairwoman of the US government’s National Biodefense Science Board. “You’re having increasing resistance rates, increasing immunosuppressed patients worldwide… and you have this bug which is now adapting to higher temperatures.”
Experts on the panel, organised by the biotech events company Demy-Colton, said a surge in conditions including diabetes, heart disease and even long Covid will also suit the fungi.
“Diabetes is a very rampant medical issue that predisposes to a lot of immune issues down the road,” said Dr Kurilla. So we have created a much more at risk population.”
Steve Brozak, president of WBB Securities, added that Covid-19 has had a huge ripple effect”, and many long-Covid patients are “going to be more susceptible to these hospital associated [fungal] infections.”
Yet the panelists warned that not enough is being done to develop new tools – especially new antimicrobials – to treat Candida auris and other fungal infections, despite the evident risks. They also warned that the world should not become over-reliant on vaccines to halt epidemics.
“Although fungal vaccines, there have been efforts for a long long time, it’s still a scientific nut that has to be cracked, I think, at this point… before we can move in that direction,” said Dr Kurilla. “So the therapeutics, rapid diagnostics, is what we need right now.”
Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security
