Inside the lab where experts on deadly fungi work to stop the next global pandemic – after WHO warns four organisms of ‘critical’ threats to public health

A team of deadly fungus experts are working tirelessly to prevent the next global pandemic as at least four organisms are considered ‘critical’ threats.

Scientists at The Australian National Mycological Reference Center (NMRC) is in the process of identification new fungi that can spread on a global scale, causing massive infections and deaths because there are no antifungal medications on the market.

In the laboratory, researchers are working to discover antifungal drugs, susceptibility testing, and monitoring emerging resistance to antifungals.

The biggest threat is a yeast-like fungus called Candida auris, first discovered in Japan in 2009, which can lead to serious blood infections in humans.

Sarah Kidd, head of the NMRC, said The Last of Us had helped people become informed about fungal infections which are becoming increasingly common and are estimated to cause four million deaths worldwide every year.

The TV show ‘The Last of Us’ introduces a world where a fungus infects the population, turning people into zombies, and became an instant hit when it was released in 2023.

“For the first time, people are interested in fungi,” Kidd told SA Pathology.

‘They now understand that there is more going on than superficial infections such as athlete’s foot.’

She continued, “Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has just happened, and when you watch this show, people are wondering, can this happen to mold too?”

The fungal infection in ‘The Last of Us,’ called Cordyceps, ‘zombifies’ insects but poses no threat to humans, Kidd said The guard.

Their lower body temperature means they cannot spread the infection to humans because it cannot grow at our normal body temperature of 98.6 degrees.

The HBO show “The Last of Us” has raised awareness about how common yeast infections are

Although Kidd said an apocalypse caused by zombie-like fungi isn’t possible in real life, “we’re already dealing with some kind of slow-moving fungal pandemic.”

The lack of antifungal treatments has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to designate four out of nineteen fungal pathogens as a ‘critical’ threat to public health.

The CDC reported that the top four fungal infections include Cryptococcus neoformans, Candida auris, Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans.

Although Candid auris is currently the biggest threat, it did not gain more attention until five years later when it was identified in South Africa, India and the US.

Last year, Kidd and her team realized that Candida auris was a new type of strain that is resistant to drugs, but has worked hard to conduct diagnostic tests to understand, identify and diagnose the disease.

Sarah Kidd is a researcher at the National Mycological Reference Center and said Candida auris affects immunocompromised patients

Candida auris fungal infection is on the rise around the world as Australian researchers strive to find a treatment

Last year, Kidd and her team realized that Candida auris was a new type of strain that is resistant to drugs, but has worked hard to conduct diagnostic tests to understand, identify and diagnose the disease.

Kidd told SA Pathology that it is “causing chaos worldwide,” but she and her team have developed a PCR test to quickly screen patients who may have contracted the fungal infection.

This rapid screening process allowed hospitals to isolate patients more quickly and prevent Candida auris from spreading.

“They call this the first fungal superbug,” Kidd told The Guardian, “because it behaves like all those drug-resistant bacteria.”

This fungus can live on humans and spread easily from person to person until it enters the bloodstream, causing a bacterial infection that has become resistant to antibiotics.

Fungal infections are starting to spread around the world, and Candida auris is no exception.

According to the CDC, it infected 2,377 Americans in 2022 and another 5,754 asymptomatic people tested positive.

The most common symptoms are fever, low blood pressure, chills and body aches, but for the majority of people there are no symptoms.

Scientists still don’t know how deadly it is, but the CDC reported that the mortality rate of people infected with Candida auris is between 30 and 60 percent, but noted that the majority of patients who died had underlying conditions.

The WHO reported that the rapid spread of the fungus is likely due to rising global temperatures due to climate change, which causes fungal pathogens to spread and mutate, and the increase in international travel.

But the bigger problem, Kidd said, is that “fungal diseases have been neglected in terms of research and funding, the development of diagnostics and of antifungal drugs.”

But Kidd said she and other NMRC researchers are working to develop tests and treatments to prevent future infections and the possibility of another pandemic.