In the hit HBO show “The Last of Us,” the world is devastated by a pandemic caused by a deadly fungus. Is that even possible?
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The new HBO show “Our Newest” is a whopper. Climate change has caused the rise of a new pathogen that has nearly wiped out humanity. The cause of the infection is strange.
(BEAUTIFUL TV SHOW, “The Last of Us”)
Josh BRENER: (As Murray) Not bacteria, not viruses. So…
JOHN HANNAH (As Dr. Neuman) Fungus. Yes, that’s the usual answer. Fungi seem harmless enough.
RASCOE: It’s also a fungus cause. As part of an ongoing series, NPR looks at what could cause the next pandemic, and so “The Last Of Us” made us wonder if something like this could happen. Here’s NPR’s global health correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff with the story.
MICHAELEN DOUCLEFF, BYLINE: For the past decade, I’ve been reporting on infectious diseases, and I’ve often asked scientists, what keeps you up at night? What kinds of pathogens could cause a terrible pandemic? I hear…
NOTIFIED PERSON #1: Hendra virus.
REPORTED PERSON #2: Influenza.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Nipah virus.
NOTIFIED PERSON #4: The coronavirus.
DOUCLEFF: Basically, it’s always a virus. I have never heard of a fungus, and a fungus has never caused a huge pandemic like covid. This is because different viruses have important advantages in fungi. For one thing, much faster;
AILEEN MARTY: Yeah, that’s right.
DOUCLEFF: This Dr. Aileen Marty. It’s an infectious disease at Florida International University.
MARTY: The great advantage, if you will, of a virus is that one particle becomes viral in a very short time. And as it produces more viral particles, it is prone to change.
DOUCLEFF: And this way, viruses can evolve much faster than fungi.
MAR.
DOUCLEFF: That a virus can suddenly enter our immune systems, and in a flash, the whole world becomes susceptible. Marty Fungi says he can’t really do this because they change 10,000 times slower. And as an aside, the fungus in “The Last Of Us” that controls the human brain – it’s made. It’s totally sci-fi. Plus, Marty says, people who have healthy immune systems can fight off fungal infections before they become dangerous.
MARTY: The thing is that immuno-competent people don’t get sick from a fungus entering their body.
DOUCLEFF: If you had to send money to, you know, what’s going to cause the next pandemic, would you put it on a fungus or a virus?
MARTY: I want that virus. I really am. But that doesn’t mean we don’t pay attention to mushrooms because many, many, many people die every year from all sorts of other issues.
DOUCLEFF: In fact, about 1.5 million people die from fungal infections every year, and there is growing concern that this number will rise because of climate change. So this is where the show “The Last of Us” gets the science right. Most fungi live in the outdoor environment, so they cannot live inside humans. We are too hot. But as wisdom is needed, the result is said.
(BEAUTIFUL TV SHOW, “The Last of Us”)
HANNAH: (As Dr. Neuman) What if we change this? What if the world warmed slightly? Well…
DOUCLEFF: Laura Goodman studies pathogen genomics at Cornell University. He says there is evidence that warming temperatures have already led to the emergence of a new fungal disease.
LAURA GOODMAN: That one is pretty nasty because it’s incompatible with many of the drugs that we have available. And not only this, but it seems to have a great advantage in changing it so that it can cause disease in man.
DOUCLEFF: It’s called white ear disease. And again, Goodman says that people with dangerous immune systems are fooled.
BONUS: To many, it’s probably innocent.
DOUCLEFF: But there is a concern that can change.
GOODMAN: It definitely keeps me up at night because all the work that’s being done on bacteria and viruses, and how much we know, and then we look at fungal pathogens and it’s even less.
DOUCLEFF: And since “the last of us” is raising all this awareness, he hopes he can change that too.
Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR News.
Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or modified in the future. Availability and availability may vary. The official record of NPR programming is the audio record.
#deadly #fungal #pandemic
