Global deaths from fungal disease have doubled in a decade – new study: Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock Eleven years ago, my colleagues and I estimated that about 2 million people around the world were dying from fungal infections annually. My latest estimate puts the figure today at nearly double that: around 3.8 million deaths. To put this …
Fungal infections in the brain aren’t just the stuff of movies – Africa grapples with a deadly epidemic: The fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. This fungus can cause a number of disorders in people with compromised immune function or other lung diseases. Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library/GettyImages In the 2023 American post-apocalyptic drama television series The Last of …
The Last of Us: why making fungal vaccines is so challenging: Warning: this article may contain spoilers. HBO’s hit TV adaptation of the popular video game The Last of Us has just aired its season one finale. While there are some aspects of the series’ premise that are far from realistic (such as the possibility …
The Last of Us: fungal infections really can kill – and they’re getting more dangerous: Millions have been tuning in every week to watch the highly anticipated TV adaptation of The Last of Us. The show depicts a post-apocalyptic world where society has collapsed due to the outbreak of a dangerous, brain-controlling fungal infection that …
Fungal toxins are widespread in European wheat – threatening human health and the economy: Harmful fungal toxins are a growing threat for European wheat. Sergey Butin/Shutterstock Wheat provides 19% of the calories and 21% of the protein consumed by humans globally. But a fungal disease called fusarium head blight (FHB), which can infect wheat crops …
Antibiotics can lead to life-threatening fungal infection because of disruption to the gut microbiome – new study: pirke/Shutterstock Fungal infections kill around the same number of people each year as tuberculosis. They mostly take hold in people who are vulnerable because they have a defective immune system caused by an underlying disease, such as cancer, …
Fungal infections cause more Aids deaths than tuberculosis – here’s what we can do about it: Even though annual deaths from Aids are coming down – from a peak of 1.9 million in 2004 to 690,000 in 2020 – that’s still way too many. In 2020, 214,000 people with Aids died of tuberculosis (TB), though …
Researchers unlock the secrets of fungal viruses: why it matters: Fungal viruses have been important in reducing the impact of fungal diseases on chestnuts in Europe. Aygul Bulte/Shutterstock In the past year the world has been overwhelmed with rapidly emerging, important and fascinating information regarding SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The pace of …