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Related: About this forumA Mysterious Infection, Spanning the Globe in a Climate of Secrecy
The rise of Candida auris embodies a serious and growing public health threat: drug-resistant germs.For decades, public health experts have warned that the overuse of antibiotics was reducing the effectiveness of drugs that have lengthened life spans by curing bacterial infections once commonly fatal. But lately, there has been an explosion of resistant fungi as well, adding a new and frightening dimension to a phenomenon that is undermining a pillar of modern medicine.
This is similar to concerns that resistant bacteria are growing because of excessive use of antibiotics in livestock for health and growth promotion. As with antibiotics in farm animals, azoles are used widely on crops.
On everything potatoes, beans, wheat, anything you can think of, tomatoes, onions, said Dr. Rhodes, the infectious disease specialist who worked on the London outbreak. We are driving this with the use of antifungicides on crops.
Dr. Chiller theorizes that C. auris may have benefited from the heavy use of fungicides. His idea is that C. auris actually has existed for thousands of years, hidden in the worlds crevices, a not particularly aggressive bug. But as azoles began destroying more prevalent fungi, an opportunity arrived for C. auris to enter the breach, a germ that had the ability to readily resist fungicides now suitable for a world in which fungi less able to resist are under attack.
On everything potatoes, beans, wheat, anything you can think of, tomatoes, onions, said Dr. Rhodes, the infectious disease specialist who worked on the London outbreak. We are driving this with the use of antifungicides on crops.
Dr. Chiller theorizes that C. auris may have benefited from the heavy use of fungicides. His idea is that C. auris actually has existed for thousands of years, hidden in the worlds crevices, a not particularly aggressive bug. But as azoles began destroying more prevalent fungi, an opportunity arrived for C. auris to enter the breach, a germ that had the ability to readily resist fungicides now suitable for a world in which fungi less able to resist are under attack.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/health/drug-resistant-candida-auris.html
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A Mysterious Infection, Spanning the Globe in a Climate of Secrecy (Original Post)
Cattledog
Apr 2019
OP
AJT
(5,240 posts)1. My husband passed away last summer due to a fungal infection in his lungs.
This is a real threat. There is no cure for fungal infections, only a struggle to keep them at bay.
Delphinus
(11,840 posts)2. Quite scary.
And the secrecy is worrisome as well.
ck4829
(35,084 posts)3. According to the fossil record, fungus thrives after mass extinctions
We are in the midst of one right now.