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acespicoli

Well-known member
Ant killed by huge penis shaped fungus exploding from its anus
last seen biting a stick in pain...



In addition to the bulbous mushroom protruding from the ant's rectum, evidence of the freaky fungus can be seen throughout the body of its unlucky host. The ant likely died as a result of its fungal infection and was fortuitously fixed in tree resin (which fossilizes into amber) shortly afterward. It is the oldest example of a fungal parasite ever discovered in ants.
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acespicoli

Well-known member

Photo of Ece Nagihan

Ece Nagihan 11 January 2023​

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Scientists have warned against the superfungal disease, which is resistant to drugs and can cause up to 78 percent death in people it infects. While the cases of the fungus called Candida auris are increasing in many countries, especially in the USA, experts are worried that the fungus, which is difficult to detect and treat, may cause a global epidemic. In this article, “What is Candida auris?” “Has Candida auris been seen in Turkey?”, “How deadly is Candida auris?” and “What are the symptoms of Candida auris?” Find answers to your questions and more.
US health officials announced that a drug-resistant “super” fungus was discovered for the first time in the state of Mississippi. As of Monday, seven patients began receiving treatment for the fungus Candida auris (C. auris), according to officials from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC).
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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that C. auris is an “emerging fungus that poses a serious global health threat.” The infection, which is highly contagious and resistant to many antifungal drugs, can cause serious illness in people who already have chronic health problems.
From the UMMC Division of Infectious Diseases, Dr. “This is the first time we have had a locally acquired case in Mississippi. The public needs to be aware that we have seen this fungus. Most cases of C. auris in the US are due to its spread within healthcare facilities in the same city or state,” said Bhagyashri Navalkele. It was stated that the fungus in Mississippi appeared at the care facility.
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SILENT CARRIERS​

Health officials stated that when classifying cases, they had to distinguish between infections and “colonization”, which refers to the presence of microorganisms that have not yet caused infection.
Dr. “Colonization means you can be a silent carrier of the fungus and then there can be an active infection. If you are identified as colonized, you should make sure your healthcare team knows this so they can begin isolation measures immediately and initiate appropriate treatment when infection is suspected,” Navalkele said.
On the other hand, Dr. Navalkele stated that C. auris is resistant to most drugs used against fungal infections.
Dr. Navalkele also pointed out that C. auris is difficult to identify with standard laboratory methods and can be misidentified in laboratories that do not have a specific technology.
On the other hand, C. auris cases seem to have increased in the last decade across the USA. Only 63 cases were reported in four states between 2013 and 2016, according to CDC data. According to the figures, 1,440 cases were detected until September 30 in 22 states in 2022.
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WHAT IS CANDIDA AURIS?​

Candida auris is a mysterious and dangerous fungal infection that is resistant to many known common antifungal drugs. Candida auris is a fungus that can cause life-threatening infections when it enters the bloodstream. It was first described in 2009 in a patient in Japan. In recent years, it has begun to appear largely in hospitals and nursing homes.

WHY IS CANDIDA AURIS DANGEROUS?​

C. auris often shows resistance to certain antifungal drugs used to treat such infections. According to statements from the CDC, more than 90 percent of C. auris infections are resistant to an antifungal drug, while 30 percent are resistant to two or more drugs. Once the microbe settles in a place, it is very difficult to completely eradicate it from there. Some hospitals have to provide special cleaning equipment for this process and in some cases even have to remove floor and ceiling tiles.
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WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF CANDIDA AURIS?​

People with weakened immune systems, the elderly, the sick, and newborns are at increased risk for C. auris. Common symptoms of C. auris include fever, muscle pain, and malaise. However, because it can be confused with the symptoms of other diseases, it becomes very difficult to detect the presence of superfungus without testing it.
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HOW FATAL IS CANDIDA AURIS?​

According to the study published in the scientific journal BMC Infectious Diseases in 2019, the mortality rate in populations infected by C. auris ranges from 30 percent to 78 percent.
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HAS CANDIDA AURIS BE SEEN IN TURKEY?​

According to CSC’s map, the superfungus C. auris has been spotted in many countries, including the USA, Canada, Russia, Australia and Greece. However, the root of the disease has not yet been found in Turkey.


National Geographic Logo - Home

Moth with fungal growth coming from body.

Fruiting bodies erupt from a dead moth killed by the cordyceps fungus. The genetically related ophiocordyceps fungus similarly kills insects, but first makes its host body do its bidding.
Photograph by Alex Hyde, Nature Picture Library



Could a parasitic fungus evolve to control humans?​

The zombie-creating fungus in The Last of Us is real, but there are many other fungi to fear. Of the 5 million fungal species in the world, a few hundred are dangerous to people.

An ant, no longer in control of its body, crawls away from its colony, hangs perilously on a leaf, and waits to die as a fungus consumes its body, emerges from its head, and releases spores into the air.
“They’re like these grim little Christmas ornaments out in the forest,” says Ian Will, a fungal geneticist at the University of Central Florida, where these zombified ants can be found.
What if this parasitic fungus could do the same thing to us?
That’s the premise of the new television show based on the video game The Last of Us in which, as a result of warming temperatures caused by climate change, a fungus takes over the world and turns humans into parasite-controlled zombies.
“In a fantastical way, the logical links are there, but it’s not likely to happen in real life,” says Will. But while scientists aren’t worried about fungi evolving to turn people into zombies, rising temperatures do pose a real risk of making fungal infections worse.

How does the parasite infect ants?​

Creator of The Last of Us Neil Druckmann was reportedly inspired by a nature video showing the fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, infecting a bullet ant. Cordyceps are a broad category of insect parasites, and a popular health supplement. But only ophiocordyceps control their host’s body.
About 35 of these ophiocordyceps fungi are known to turn insects into zombies, but as many as 600 may exist, says João Araújo, an expert on parasitic fungi at the New York Botanical Garden.
The first signs of infection are erratic and abnormal behavior. Scientists think the parasite takes physical control of its host by growing fungal cells around the brain that hijack an insect’s nervous system to control its muscles. It’s unclear exactly how it does this, whether by releasing a chemical or altering a bug’s DNA, says Will.
It’s a process the fungus has been refining within its specific host since before human history.
“Our hypothesis is that they have been coevolving for about 45 million years,” says Araújo.

Are we sure it can’t infect humans?​

For the fungus to move to any warm-blooded animal would require some serious evolutionary work.
“If the fungus really wanted to infect mammals it would require millions of years of genetic changes,” Araújo.
Each zombie-creating fungus species evolved to match a specific insect, so unique strains have little effect on an organism except for the one they evolved to infect. For example, a cordyceps that evolved to infect an ant in Thailand can’t infect a different ant species in Florida.
“If a jump from an ant species is hard, to jump to humans—that’s definitely sci-fi,” says Will. “But this idea that temperature plays a role in fungal infections is certainly reasonable.”

A threat from rising temperatures?​

Even without a looming threat from parasitic fungi, there are plenty of other fungi to fear.
There are millions of fungal species estimated to exist in the world, and a few hundred are known to be dangerous to humans. One thing that’s protected us from serious fungal infections are our own warm bodies. At around 98°F, human bodies are too hot for most fungal species to spread an infection—they prefer a range of 77°F to 86°F.
(Forget what you think you know about the average human body temperature.)
“One of the reasons why we have skin fungi is they can get between folds of skin. Those are sort of wet, dark places fungi can proliferate that are cooler than body temperature,” says Shmuel Shoham, an infectious diseases expert at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
“As the Earth warms up, there is concern that the change between environment temperature and body temperature won't be as dramatic,” he says. Hypothetically, that would make it easier for fungi that have evolved to withstand hotter outdoor temperatures to also be able to survive inside the human body.
There is one fungal species capable of infecting people that scientists think may have resulted from warming temperatures, called Candida auris.

It wasn’t even known to science until 2007, but in 2011 and 2012, it was suddenly found on three different continents.
“It came out of nowhere,” says Arturo Casadevall, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “The idea is that this fungus was out there, and over the years it adapted to higher temperatures until it could break through.”
When they enter the bloodstream, fungi present symptoms similar to a bacterial infection, Shoham notes. For people with healthy immune systems, fighting them off is typically not an issue. But many are not so lucky: The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 30 to 60 percent of patients infected with the fungus have died, although the possibility they had underlying health conditions makes it difficult to determine how pivotal a role Candida auris played.
But when asked if a fungal outbreak akin to COVID-19 was possible, Casadevall says it’s not out of the question.
Considering that possibility, he posits, “Am I worried about an unknown disease emerging and infecting the immunocompetent? Sure.”
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Three Berries

Active member
revenge is a powerful motivator. i wonder how many whales were killed by men in sailboats/ships over the centuries ? payback is a bitch...
I disturbed a cardinal nest one year in my backyard to take a picture. I was haunted by the male year round for the next three years. He would peck at the windshield on the car, peck at the window glass on the house, even pecked on the headlights of the car and ruined them..
 

Three Berries

Active member
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Hydnora africana is an achlorophyllous plant in the subfamily Hydnoroideae, native to southern Africa that is parasitic on the roots of members of the family Euphorbiaceae.[1] It is also called jakkalskos or jackal food.[2] The specific epithet africana means to be from Africa.[3] Molecular data has suggested that Hydnoroideae is a "basal angiosperm" solidifying its place among the more primitive flowering plants.[1] Hydnoraceae are the only angiosperms known to have no leaves or scales and are considered obligate parasites, completely dependent on their hosts to survive.[4] The plant grows underground, except for a fleshy flower that emerges above ground and emits an odor of feces to attract its natural pollinators, dung beetles and carrion beetles.[5] The vegetative body of the plants has been reduced to only consisting of roots and flowers.[4] The flowers act as temporary traps, retaining the beetles that enter long enough for them to pick up pollen.[6]
 

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