22 June 2023 , 08:22
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A "very dangerous" fungus that makes millions of people ill each year has been found in a remote part of the Earth - and it's sparked fears of a new pandemic.
Samples of Aspergillus fumigatus were taken from the Three Parallel Rivers region in Yunnan, China, seven per cent of which was found to be resistant to drugs, a new study has found.
It is a common type of fungus but in this remote mountainous area thousands of metres above sea level, it has evolved into a strain that medication is ineffective at treating.
While normally fungi can become resistant to drugs through exposure, these sample have been taken from an area which is sparsely populated and underdeveloped.
The discovery has raised fears of a new pandemic.
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There are fears that the new strain could spread rapidly (Getty Images/iStockphoto)"Seven percent may seem like only a small number, but these drug-resistant strains are capable of propagating very quickly and taking over local and regional populations of this species," said Dr Jianping Xu, a professor of biology at McMaster University, reported phys.org.
"There is a need for increased surveillance of drug resistance in the environment across diverse geographic regions."
The fungus is a common mold with airborne spores that can be inhaled by humans.
Dr Xu believes that there could be natural resistance developed in the environment but in this case it is more likely that the new drug resistant fungus comes from spores of other fungi overexposed to agricultural fungicides.
It's worrying that these spores are able to travel and cause global spread, he said.
"This fungus is highly ubiquitous—it's around us all the time. It is estimated that we all inhale hundreds of spores of this species every day," said Dr Xu.
"While it doesn't always cause noticeable health problems, three to four million people experience disease symptoms caused by A. fumigatus each year. It can be very dangerous — it can lead to lung removal or even death — and now, increasingly, many of these infections will be impacted by drug resistance."
Unlike with Covid, fungus doesn't need a host to spread and can travel on people's bodies or even just in the wind.
While relatively few species of fungus cause infections in humans, there is fear that with global warming making the environment more hospitable to pathogens, as well fungicide overuse in agriculture, there is a greater threat of fungal disease.