Photo: Getty; HBO
CNN’s medical correspondentSanjay Guptaweighed in Tuesday morning on the theory that cordyceps fungi would be able to infect humans, as shown in the video game and showThe Last of Us.
The fungi in this premise is real, and does affect some creatures like ants — making them hosts for the fungi to control. The fungi was documented in the 2019Hostile Planetdocumentary on National Geographic and followed the process of the spores affecting its ant victims, controlling them and making them a host to produce more fungal spores.
However, Gupta assured viewers on CNN that while the cordyceps fungi can take over ants, it isn’t a threat to humans. He said humans' high body temperatures are too warm for the fungus to thrive in, though he noted that fungi are starting to adapt to warmer temperatures due to climate change.
Other experts also agree, including Matthew Fisher, Ph.D., a professor of fungal disease epidemiology at the Imperial College School of Public Health. He told ABC News that while fungus can cause hallucinations in people, “a human manipulating cordyceps isvanishingly unlikely.”
There are at least 150,000 known species of fungi, and only about200 of them infect humans. There are also thousands of species of cordyceps, and each one infects a particular species of insect. There are no known cordyceps that affect humans, due to the advanced human immune system.
Gupta put a spotlight instead on the rise of deaths from known fungal infections that do affect humans, especially those who are immunocompromised.
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So far the World Health Organization has identified19 fungal pathogensthat could pose a health threat globally in a recent report released on October, 2022.
source: people.com
