In a probable world first, plant fungus infects ‘mushroom’ man | India News – Times of India

KOLKATA: A 61-year-old Kolkata researcher who spent years focusing on mushrooms and the like was infected by a killer plant fungus, making it possibly the world’s first reported case of a plant fungus infecting a human.
The person was treated at a city hospital and has since recovered. Doctors said he was a plant mycologist, who worked with decaying materials, mushrooms and various other plant fungi as part of his profession and research activities.

“The recurrent exposure to decaying materials may have caused this rare infection. This case report demonstrates the crossover of plant pathogen into humans when working in close contact with plant fungi,” says a report on the findings of this case compiled by a team of doctors at Apollo Multispecialty Hospital (AMH), Kolkata.
The findings were recently published in the Medical Mycology Case Reports Journal.
Doctors involved said chondrostereum purpureum — the fungus — is known to cause a condition called “silver leaf disease” in plants. In this, the fungus infects plants through wounds, leading to silvering of the leaves and later causing the death of the branch.
“The cross-kingdom pathogenicity demands much work to be done in order to explore insights of the mechanisms involved, thus leading to possible recommendations to control and contain these infections,” the doctors wrote in their report.
The researcher had come to Apollo’s OPD with complaints of cough, hoarseness in voice, recurrent pharyngitis, fatigue, anorexia and difficulty in swallowing. He had no history of diabetes, HIV, renal or any other chronic disease, nor was he on any immunosuppressive drugs.
Investigations revealed the presence of paratracheal abscess. Tests confirmed a fungal infection but conventional techniques could not identify the fungus.
The doctors treated the patient with surgical drainage of the abscess and oral antifungal therapy with regular follow-ups.
The doctors wrote that multiple new pathogenic fungi have emerged over the decades, spawned by global warming, alteration in ecosystems, unplanned urbanisation and other activities, opening a potential Pandora’s Box of new fungal infections.