An apocalypse might be right around the corner, as The Wall Street Journal reports that dangerous fungi, such as those responsible for Valley Fever — diagnosed by symptoms resembling those of the flu — has begun spreading across the U.S. That’s no news to The Last of Us fans, whose knowledge of the fungus known as cordyceps has prepared them for just such an occurrence. In fact, they’ve been preaching of an impending outbreak since 2013, when Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us game dramatized a supposedly-fictional pandemic caused by a mutated cordyceps strand. Shortly thereafter, fans came to realize that the higher-ups at Naughty Dog were inspired by a real-life fungus known as Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (cordyceps for short), otherwise called the “zombie ant fungus,” which is known to infect insects.
“The human body’s average temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit has long been too hot for most fungi to thrive, infectious-disease specialists say. But as temperatures have risen globally, some fungi might be adapting to endure more heat stress, including conditions within the human body,” The Wall Street Journal writes. The publication managed to get a professional opinion from Peter Pappas, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “As fungi are exposed to more consistent elevated temperatures, there’s a real possibility that certain fungi that were previously harmless suddenly become potential pathogens,” he said.
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