This fungus that attacks plants has infected its first human being in India

A fungus that usually infects only plants has been identified in the respiratory tract of a man in India. A one-of-a-kind case yet, but one that suggests plant pathogens might also be dangerous to humans.

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For the first time, a fungus which usually attacks treestrees was identified in the upper respiratory tract of a perfectly healthy 60-year-old Indian man. The mushroom in question is Chondrostereus purple a species phytophagephytophage which causes disease in trees and shrubs of the Rosaceae family. A priori, it is not capable of infecting humans, and that is why doctors at a hospital in Calcutta had difficulty identifying the origin of the abscess lodged in their patient’s trachea.

A man infected with a fungus that attacks plants?

Routine techniques used to identify fungi in the medical setting have not revealed thespeciesspecies incriminated. Only sound sequencing genomegenomeproduced by the WHO Collaborating Centre on Reference and Research on Fungi of Medical Importance, in India, made it known that it was Chondrosterium purple.

The patient who suffered from pharyngitispharyngitis chronic cough and fatigue for more than three months was placed on Voriconazole, an antifungal, for 60 days following his abscess was cleared. He didn’t have a relapserelapse during his medical check-up two years later. This man became contaminated by being repeatedly exposed to the spores emitted by a Chondrosterium purple decaying. As this is the first case of its kind to be listed in the scientific literature concerning human infections by Mushroom of plant, there remains a lot of uncertainty on the mode of contaminationcontamination or the multiplication of mushroommushroom in the organism.

“Inter-kingdom” infections, in this case from the kingdom of plants to that of animals, are poorly documented and might be at the origin of emerging infectious diseases.