Deadly Fungal Infection Emerged Because of Global Warming, Study Says

A new study on the mysterious origins of a deadly fungal infection that seemed to have simultaneously emerged in far-flung corners of the globe finds that global warming may be to blame.

Candida auris, a fungus that can kill anyone who comes into close contact with a carrier, was first identified in 2009 in a Japanese patient with an ear infection. It then started showing up in hospitals in Asia, Africa and South America in patients without a clear link — and no one could figure out why.

“The greatest mystery is how you end up with the same fungal species emerging in three different continents at roughly the same time when they are genetically different,” says Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of the molecular microbiology and immunology department at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He’s also the lead author of the new Candida auris study, published Tuesday in the journal mBio.

View the complete July 24 article by Sanya Mansoor on the Time website here.