As the temperature rise due to climate change and global warming, the environment is slowly changing dramatically. Glaciers are melting fast, oceans are getting warmer, thousands of living things die due to extreme heat, and creatures living in ice are slowly losing their habitat. But did you know that the rise of temperature can also result in the emergence of several species of fungus, which can pose a risk to humankind?
Candida Auris (C. Auris) is one of the species of fungus that have emerged out of nowhere that made the experts ponder for several years. After several studies, Dr. Arturo Casadevall, Ph.D., chair of the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology department of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD, finally was able to debunk the main reason behind.
"What is unusual about Candida Auris is that it appeared in three different continents at the same time," shares Casadevall. "Something happened to allow this organism to bubble up and cause disease" and "it could be climate change," the expert added. To confirm their suspicion, they decided to dig deep into its thermal tolerance.
Through their studies, the experts learned that C. Auris could thrive in higher temperature. So, the rise of temperature in places such as India, South America, and South Africa, encouraged the fungi to emerge in these places, as reported by Medical News Today.
But experts explained this hasn't always been this way. Scientifically, any types of fungi can't survive long in warm places. Given this reason, experts are unsure whether C. Auris characteristic of thriving in warm places is a natural trait of the fungi or not. Furthermore, used to be known as an "environmental fungus," this fungi is also fond of staying in cooler skin than those with higher temperature.
The experts now consider this biological change in C. Auris characteristic as a result of the fungi's ability to adapt based on the changes that are happening in our environment at present. Unfortunately, as this fungi learn to adapt to such temperature, experts are afraid it could only put mankind in danger in the years to come. Aside from C. Auris, experts are expecting more fungus to emerge in the future.
Candida Auris is one of the fungi that can cause serious invasive infections to a person. It doesn't respond to simple antifungal drugs. This makes the fungi almost impossible to treat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
