In India, a man has been infected with the “silver leaf disease” fungus, which usually infests plants, for the first time in the world.
We thought we had to protect ourselves “only” – so to speak – from zoonoses, diseases transmitted to humans by animals, but from India comes a story worthy of the TV series The Last of Usin which a man discovered that he had been infected with a fungus that normally affects plants.
In the scientific journal Medical Mycology Case Reports in fact, the case of a 61-year-old infected with the Chondrostereus purplethe fungus responsible for parasitic lead sickness or silver leaf disease, an infection that is fatal to plants if not treated in time.
A new guest: us. The fungus, which spreads its spores through the wind, causes a metallic color in the leaves that deform and fall prematurely, as well as attaching itself to the trunk and branches. It generally infects fruit trees but also some ornamental plants such as roses and rhododendrons. Certainly no one before now suspected that he might be interested in the man.
Symptoms The patient presented to a medical center in eastern India with cough, hoarse voice, difficulty swallowing, fatigue, and recurrent pharyngitis. Up until three months earlier, the man had been in perfect health, with no chronic diseases such as HIV, diabetes, infections or kidney problems. Distinguishing marks: he was a plant mycologist, the one who studies the relationship between fungi and the vegetable kingdom.
There is always a first time… Laboratory tests did not find the presence of bacteria, but a computed tomography of the neck region showed an abscess, i.e. an accumulation of pus, at the height of the trachea. More in-depth examinations have revealed, in the abscess, some hyphae, the long underground filamentary structures typical of fungi: the DNA analysis commissioned by some WHO experts identified the person responsible in the Chondrostereus purple.
Who would have thought? Although the patient had handled decaying plant material and fungi for work, he did not recall ever having come into contact with the fungus in question. AND among the victims of the fungus there had never been man.
An exceptional circumstance (we hope). Fungal diseases are not uncommon in humans, although only a few hundred are capable of causing worrying symptoms or posing a threat to public health, such as White ears. It may happen that, especially in immunocompromised patients, fungi that normally feed on decomposing vegetation such as species of the genus Aspergillus can infect parts of the body.
But for a microorganism, being able to feel at ease in the human body as well as between leaves and bark is a more than rare event: we have to contend with different temperature and nutrient conditions and overcome our fierce immune defenses. Moreover, the patient infected by the C. purple he was in perfect health.
Let’s not let our guard down. Fortunately, the patient recovered thanks to a drainage of the ulcer and two months of antifungal treatment. In the two years following the incident he had no relapses and is fine today.
Although the described case remains extremely rare – and the only one in the world so far of human infection of Chondrostereus purple – the fact that this jump between animal kingdoms could have occurred must however keep the alert high for the emergence of future infectious diseases.