#19,233
While most of our infectious disease discussions center around viruses and bacteria, from time to time we delve into fungi (see CDC: Candida auris Update & Fungal Awareness Week 2019)) and parasites (see Cyclosporiasis Reports: CDC & Michigan DOH).
Ten years ago (June 24th, 2016) the CDC issued a Clinical Alert to U.S. Healthcare facilities about the Global Emergence of Invasive Infections Caused by the Multidrug-Resistant Yeast Candida auris.In 2012's Four Fungal Foes we reviewed three endemic (Coccidioidomycosisis, Histoplasmosis, Blastomycosis) - and one emerging tropical (Cryptococcus gattii) fungi causing a significant health burden in the North America.
C. auris is an emerging fungal pathogen that was first isolated in Japan in 2009. It was initially found in the discharge from a patient's external ear (hence the name `auris'). Retrospective analysis has traced this fungal infection back over 20 years.
Over the past 10 years the reported incidence of this (mostly) healthcare-facility-acquired fungal infection has increased more than 100-fold in the United States.
In 2019's mBio: On the Emergence of Candida auris: Climate Change, Azoles, Swamps, and Birds, researchers argued that it may be the first example of a new fungal disease emerging - at least in part - due to climate change.
Updating and expanding this growing concern, we have a perspective published in mGems, which argues that the rise of global warming has created a `perfect storm' for the emergence of new fungal threats.
Due to its length, I've only posted the abstract and a few excerpts. Follow the link to read it in its entirety.
Frederic Lamoth , Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis
Published 1 July 2026
ABSTRACT
The evidence supporting the impact of global warming on the epidemiology of infectious diseases, including fungal infections, is increasing. Fungi have a remarkable ability to adapt to heat and pollution, and to disseminate via air, water ecosystems, or wildfire smoke. Their genetic plasticity can lead to thermotolerance, the ability to find new ecological niches, and fitness gains.
Natural reservoirs of the fungal biomass, which are heavily affected by global warming, may serve as the environments from where new fungal diseases originate, as illustrated by the recent emergence of Candidozyma auris and Rhodosporidiobolus fluvialis.
Moreover, global warming also affects human skin/mucosal integrity and local or systemic immune responses, which could increase host susceptibility to fungal infections.
This review examines the impact of global warming on the complex fungi-host interactions, which can lead to new challenges in mycology, and discusses possible mitigation strategies.
PERSPECTIVE
The accelerated effect of global warming on Earth is one of the most important challenges in our century. Consequences of climate change are multiple, including progressive alterations of ecosystems and increases in the frequency of natural disasters, which may lead to the emergence of new pathogens and the expansion of the epidemiological footprint of existing pathogens. For humans, adaptive mechanisms to global warming that may affect our vulnerability to infections are both societal (migration, famine or poor sanitary conditions resulting from natural disasters, changes in industry/agriculture practices, and alterations in lifestyle), environmental (loss of biodiversity in land and aquatic systems, expansion of the geographic range of vectors and changes in their ecology, changes in migratory patterns of birds), and biological (modifications of microbiota and changes in innate and adaptive immune responses).
While emerging waterborne or arthropod-associated viral (e.g., dengue) or bacterial diseases (e.g., enteric bacterial pathogens) have drawn most attention, there is increasing awareness of the role of fungi (1–4). A systematic search found 24 examples of fungal diseases with some link to climate change hazards, which represents about 10% of all impacted infectious diseases (5). This may only represent the tip of the iceberg considering the rich diversity and environmental adaptability of fungal species and the spectrum of diseases they cause. In the animal kingdom, we had a recent example of the potential of fungi in taking advantage of global warming and profoundly disturbing living ecosystems with the emergence of the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis leading to mass extinction of amphibian species (6). In this review, we will discuss the potential of fungi to thrive in a warming planet, and the preventive strategies we could employ to meet this new public health threat.
