Mushrooming Problem: Climate Crisis May Promote Superbugs

A new analysis links climate change to the recent global rise of a multidrug-resistant fungal superbug, Candida auris. A decade after it was discovered in 2009, the superbug has popped up in many genetically distinct strains in more than 30 countries on three continents. Mystified, scientists say that fungal diseases are relatively uncommon in humans because of body temperature, but if they adapt to rising temperatures and aren’t easily treatable with medications, they could increasingly endanger human health on a global scale. “Global warming may lead to new fungal diseases that we don’t even know about right now,” warns Arturo Casadevall, lead author of the study published in mBio and chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.