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Deadly fungi are an emerging microbe threat
- edejong 5y agoRadiolab published a podcast about it in 2020: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/fungus-amungus https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/fungu...
- Yuioup 5y agoOh what now
- bmitc 5y agoA film by Adam Curtis about how all of us have become Richard Nixon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxV3_bG1EHA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxV3_bG1EHA
- pkdpic_y9k 5y agoLove it, the mans brain is made of solid gold dogecoin tesla NFTs as always. But these shorter Adam Curtis vids have always confused me a bit. Are they just parts of longer documentaries that Ive never come across or does he sometimes produce these things to be under 10min? Were these aired on the BBC in between other programs or something?
- Yuioup 5y agoWhat the fuck are you all on about?
- foobiekr 5y agoI believe this is extracted from “The Trap.”
- everdrive 5y agoAre they becoming deadlier? Or, did they just rise higher in the list by virtue of the fact that other threats were mitigated.
- ipsum2 5y ago> That mutual coexistence is now tipping out of balance. Fungi are surging beyond the climate zones they long lived in, adapting to environments that would once have been inimical, learning new behaviors that let them leap between species in novel ways. While executing those maneuvers, they are becoming more successful pathogens, threatening human health in ways—and numbers—they could not achieve before. Still early stages, but signs point to fungi becoming deadlier.
- bdamm 5y agoIt's a bit of creative writing, mostly. Fungi evolve, that's what they do. And they evolve very rapidly. They also have great staying power, with spores that have covered every square millimeter of the earth pretty much for the entire history of life on earth. You're breathing some in right now. Animals evolved warm-bloodedness partly to improve resistance to environmental fungi. Meanwhile, insects (bees, ants, others) actually farm fungi as part of their food and for defense. This all points to a really profound and fundamental fact: We have been co-existing with fungi every second of every person's entire lives. If fungi are killing more people, it's because people have changed, not the fungi.
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- Dotnaught 5y ago>Animals evolved warm-bloodedness partly to improve resistance to environmental fungi I was listening to a podcast recently that discussed how human average body temperature has been declining in recent years while heat tolerance of fungi has been rising (thanks to the climate). The result is that our bodies are less capable of preventing fungal infections through heat and fungi can be pretty deadly if unchecked.
- a3w 5y agoTake over the world as: bacteria, easy. Virus, easy, but a little random. Fungi? Now the player needs to start thinking. Source: Plague Inc.
- alea_iacta_est 5y agoGotta keep the plebs scared or they may start asking questions...
- ryanmarsh 5y agoEat the bugs, live in the pod
- bigbillheck 5y agoDon't misunderestimate fungus, buddy: http://www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/rust/stem/rust-report/stem-ug99racettksk/en/ http://www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/rust/stem/rust-report/s...
- alea_iacta_est 5y agoAnd meteors, and murder hornets, and rip current, and sun flares, and cholesterol, and lightnings, tornados, straight-line wind, fast food, microwaves... and ... and ... "Every man dies. Not every man really lives" - William Wallace
- dkarras 5y ago...and gubmint. hell yeah, let's go rob a bank. you in?
- bigbillheck 5y agoPuccinia and other crop diseases have historically led to a lot more human deaths than any of those other things put together.
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 5y agoOne can do both. Even an uneducated poor grunt like me can simultaneously worry about novel diseases and the countless corrupt machinations at play the world over.
- phaemon 5y agoWhat great questions have you asked?
- trey-jones 5y agoWait, I thought it was prions. See? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18648043 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18648043
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 5y ago>fallingknife on Dec 10, 2018 >Infectious disease is one area where fear of the unknown is rational. We don't just need to defend against existing diseases, but also diseases yet to emerge. Sage wisdom shared a mere year before the covid outbreak.
- pmlnr 5y agoprions are one of those things I wish I never started reading about. It's like reading about Lovecraftian gods when you know there's nothing that could protect you if it hits you.
- masklinn 5y agoPor que no los dos? But really the potential of prions is so bad if they could realise it we’d already be done for, they’d be a homogenising swarm. Fungi though, fungi already do a lot, and they’re as ridiculously varied and flexible as they’ve been neglected. The next zoonotic threat being fungi makes a lot of sense, and it sounds rather bad.
- matheusmoreira 5y agoPrions are dangerous but unlike fungi they remain rare. Mercifully.
- actinium226 5y ago"I have lived through many great tragedies in my life, and some of them actually happened" Mark Twain
- na85 5y agoI don't understand the relevance of this quote.
- jcelerier 5y agoCataclysmic events are very often reported by newspapers, but in practice only a few are actually cataclysmic
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- tbwriting 5y agoImagine posting this in 2018 under an article about coronaviruses in bats.
- acheron 5y agoOr in 2002 or 2011 about coronaviruses or in 2015 about ebola or in 2009 about swine flu or or or... You don't get credit for predicting 10 of the last 1 pandemics.
- AlotOfReading 5y agoEbola and H1N1 were both epidemics. The former wasn't a pandemic and the latter didn't kill that many people in hindsight, but they were most definitely epidemic in large communities.
- some_account_ 5y agoIn related news, there has been a recent outbreak in India of deadly "Black Fungus" in Covid patients. https://www.theguardian.com/global/2021/may/11/what-is-the-dangerous-black-fungus-being-seen-in-covid-patients-in-india-mucormycosis https://www.theguardian.com/global/2021/may/11/what-is-the-d... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucormycosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucormycosis
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- antiviral 5y agoFungi can be very potent. There is a form of fungi called Cordyceps that invade the brains of ants and change their behavior in a way that increases its spread. Here's a clip by Attenborough explaining it best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8 They even made a movie about this jumping to humans called "The Girl with all the Gifts"
- lifty 5y agoThey also made a video game inspired by it, called The Last of Us. One of my favorite games.
- tonyhb 5y agoThis is where the inspiration for The Last of Us came from. Another form of this is in Cicadas: https://www.npr.org/2021/05/18/997998920/the-fungus-thats-making-cicadas-sex-crazy https://www.npr.org/2021/05/18/997998920/the-fungus-thats-ma... The fungi is essentially a cicada STD which eats at their bodies.
- astrange 5y agoMammals are much more resistant to parasites though - we have better immune systems, a high internal body temperature, and don't use pheromones. All of those are essentially there to prevent fungi from mind controlling us.
- eloff 5y agoIt's David Attenborough.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ctoth 5y agoReminds me of this fantastic short novel: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27238610 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27238610
- qart 5y agoDrug resistant microbes are getting bred by Indian pharma factories [corrected from "pharmacies"] through their own carelessness [1]. I think it's high time WHO or some such agency got more powers to penalize the perpetrators beyond the jurisdiction of the country. If these bugs start in one place, people on the other side of the globe get affected quickly too. At the moment, it seems that the best the west can do is not buy from factories that pollute. But this measure is insufficient. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9EJuAU2Un4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9EJuAU2Un4
- ozborn 5y agoThe article was about fungal infections, not bacterial infections. In both cases the amount of both antibiotics and anti-fungals used by humans is small relative to their use in agriculture. That may be an easier place to start, although it doesn't preclude sanction against whatever bad practices are described in your linked video (didn't watch).
- qart 5y agoThe video is about effluents form the pharma industry. The scale dwarfs any abuse by both human patients and animal farming. I have modified my comment above because I had used the wrong word.
- nightwing 5y agoThe only effective way to reduce use of anti-fungals in agriculture is to develop new resistant varieties of plants, but that is sadly blocked by people unreasonably fearing gmo.
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- perl4ever 5y agoThere was a big scandal a few years back, with a compounding pharmacy I think was in the northeastern US, which had some issue where they were contaminating medication with mold. It was being injected into patients, who were then having very diverse and horrible problems over time. Boycotting Indian manufactured medication is probably neither feasible nor a solution. Nuances of regulation matter. I remember a horror story about how patients would say their psych meds didn't work. Because the patients were, you know, mentally ill, nobody took it seriously. It turned out the FDA had approved the drug based on testing only some of the dosages, and the one that was problematic was not dissolving like it was supposed to.
- brundolf 5y agoTell me when I need to actually do something about it. Until then, I have better things to spend my mental energy on.
- blueblisters 5y agoIn India, Mucormycosis, a rare fungal infection is being seen in patients recovering from Covid-19. It has been declared an epidemic I believe. Doctors believe that high blood sugar and an indiscriminate use of steroids to reduce Covid-19 inflammation is linked to the spread.
- sdljfjafsd 5y agoThis isn't surprising to me. In India a lot of state governments are sending covid pill packs to citizens which really don't do anything for covid and contain things like hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, zinc, other steroids, and other blood thinners. even the AIMS protocol doesn't recommend against drugs and techniques that the rest of the world has rejected almost a year ago. My partner treats covid in the US and has been doing consults to patients in India. Most of their work is telling patients to ignore the pills their doctors or government has been sending, although they rarely listen. I wouldn't be surprised if a large chunk of the covid negative or mild covid population is on steroids.
- nojokes 5y agoSystemic corticosteroids are strongly recommended for patients by WHO. I see from here https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/story/remdesivir-ivermectin-india-s-covid-treatment-protocol-experts-opinion-1801980-2021-05-13 https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/story/remdesi... that also budesonide is recommended for patients with mild symptoms and the usage of is backed up by recent studies. I do not think that the problem is steroid usage by itself but depressing lack of even basic hygiene even in hospitals. PS. Blood thinning is standard procedure in COVID-19 care for many hospitals, dunno how reasonable at home without any tests. Remdesivir is injected, I do not believe that it is distributed. Perhaps you meant ivermectin?
- sdljfjafsd 5y agoSystemic corticosteroids are not prescribed for patients with mild symptoms at home in America. Basically you get acetaminophen and are asked to quarantine similar to a cold. Budesonide is not recommended in the case either. I am talking about US standards, but I think EU and UK doctors would also agree with me. Hygiene in hospital is definitely a possibly other issue. At least by US standards, blood thinners are not a reasonable procedure for mild symptoms either. In general India is being extremely aggress with using prescriptions, at least compared to the west and Eastern Asia. There are many examples where AIMS protocol and Indian standard guidance is contrary to WHO, NHS, and CDC guidance.
- woeirua 5y agoYou should be much more concerned about bacteria developing antibiotic resistance. While fungi are undoubtedly evolving quickly and may one day pose a risk to us, the devil we know is already working very quickly to overwhelm our best medications. And we know that without those medications millions per year will die. But I'm not that worried about antibiotic resistance, because there are many ways to skin a cat. MRNA vaccines, bacteriophages, targeted antibiotics, nanotech, etc all offer us ways to break free from the natural arms race that we're in right now.
- mrweasel 5y agoThe issue with fungi is that we have so litte efficient medication. What little we do have is slowly being render useless by its overuse in agriculture.
- matheusmoreira 5y agoWe've got a lot of pharmacological weapons suitable for use against bacteria. For fungi we have azoles, amphotericin B... That's pretty much it. My microbiology professor used to be terrified of these things. Probably still is.
- MrMan 5y agoThere is a new third class of anti fungals
- devops000 5y agoIt will be the new COVID?
- throw0101a 5y agoI for one welcome our new Cordycep Overlords: * https://thelastofus.fandom.com/wiki/Cordyceps_Brain_Infection https://thelastofus.fandom.com/wiki/Cordyceps_Brain_Infectio...
- Alex3917 5y agoDiscussed previously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5995095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5995095 Where commenters of course insist that fungi can't develop resistance to anti-fungals, and fungal infections aren't dangerous in the first place.