Invisible Killer in the Air: A Deadly Fungus Creeping Across America’s Lungs | World News

New York/New Delhi: Air. You can’t see, smell or feel – but there. Silently floats with breeze, creeps in houses, hospitals and lungs. His name is Aspergillus Fumigatus, a mushroom that develops in hot and humid places. It is now in some of the most crowded and humid states in the United States.

In the last few years, medical officials and researchers have quietly worried. This mushroom, which is common in compost piles and soil, is especially accused of increasing number of fatal lung infections in states such as Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and California. Even big cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Houston are not donated especially with their aging infrastructure and high -intensity lives.

For most healthy people, breathing in mushrooms does not do much. However, for those with a fragile immune system such as cancer patients, he can trigger a serious infection known as aspergillosis, a person who lives with an organ transplant or HIV. In its chronic form, infection remains in the lungs for years. In its invasive form, it does not stop in the lungs; It can reach the brain, kidneys and even the heart.

Doctors are worried that aspergillosis does not need to be officially reported in the US. This means that there is no national monitoring, a clear number and an early warning system. What they know is that hospitalization increases steadily. Between 2000 and 2013, US hospitals increased by about 3% annually in serious cases of serious aspergillosis. Until 2014, there were nearly 15,000 hospital stays connected to mushrooms and over $ 1.2 billion to hospitals.

And treatment? This gets harder. The same class of drugs, called Azoller, is widely used in agriculture that doctors trust in fighting fungal infections. They help to protect plants from mold, but this has created a new problem of the drug -resistant strains of Aspergillus Fumigatus. Laboratory tests now find fungi -resistant mushrooms on farm territory in at least seven US states. And when these strains are infected with people, the usual drugs are useless.

A special toxin made by this mushroom called aflatoxin is particularly dangerous. It is linked to cancers and organ damage that affect everything from lungs to liver. The World Health Organization is now listed Aspergillus Fumigatus as a high priority threat. From where? Because every year it kills thousands of people and the drugs we have lose their strength.

Worse, climate change offers new opportunities to this mantle. Rising temperatures and humidity create excellent reproductive areas. Scientists warn at the end of the century that the spread of mushrooms can grow by 75%in the southern half of the United States.

For people with vulnerable health, small steps can help – avoid horticulture, wear protective masks in dusty areas and keep the interior air clean. However, hospitals are now accelerating their fights, increasing mold controls, and passing into stronger drugs when necessary.

Researchers say it’s just the beginning. Aspergillus Fumigatus quietly squeezes his grasping every time, without a clear reaction of the right conditions and the country.