The Rose-Killing Fungus That Jumped into Humans
Here’s a story that may make you think of The Last of Us. In March, doctors in India reported the first known case of someone infected by the rose-killing fungus Chondrostereum purpureum.
Microbes that normally infect other living things do occasionally jump the species barrier and make humans sick. But this jump usually occurs from another animal, not from plants to humans. It’s even weirder that it happened with a fungus, since our bodies are too warm for most fungi to survive and thrive in.
C. purpureum causes an often-fatal disease in plants called silver leaf. But the person in this case only experienced a mild throat infection and recovered after two months of antifungal medication. The truly scary possibility, however, is that this won’t be the last plant germ to leap to humans, and we might not get so lucky next time.
