Responsible for lead disease in trees, a phytopathogenic fungus, which until now only attacked the plant kingdom, has for the first time been identified in the upper respiratory tract of a man, in this case a 61-year-old Indian mycologist in good health so far.
What challenge the scientific community trying to find out if Chondrostereum purpureum, hitherto considered harmless to humans, could now represent a threat to the human race.
The patient had been suffering from chronic pharyngitis, hoarseness, cough, swallowing difficulties, anorexia and fatigue for more than three months.
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In addition, he had an abscess lodged in his trachea. This is precisely what made it possible to identify the presence of the fungus. The routine techniques used to identify fungi in the medical context having not made it possible to specify the incriminated species, it was necessary to resort to the sequencing of its genome, carried out by the WHO Collaborating Center on Reference and Research on Fungi of Medical Importance. , in India. This is how we could see that it was Chondrostereum purpureum.
In the tree, the bark becomes necrotic
This infection is a first in a human, insofar as, until now, this phytopathogenic fungus was known to exclusively attack trees and shrubs of the Rosaceae family, in which it causes lead disease. The consequences for the infected tree are leaves that become dull, the ends of the branches that dry out, the bark that becomes necrotic and turns brown.
As for the patient, once his abscess was cleaned, he was given an antifungal for 60 days. Recurrently exposed to spores emitted by this fungus, the Indian mycologist did not have a relapse during his medical check-up two years later.
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