30 May 2021

Why the next pandemic could be a potentially deadly fungus

From Sunday Morning, 11:35 am on 30 May 2021

While the world continues to struggle to contain Covid-19, scientists are warning of another coronavirus pandemic on the horizon -- one which is likely to come from a yeast-like fungus. Dr Tom Chiller is the Chief of the Mycotic Diseases Branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He joins the show to discuss why deadly fungi are the newest emerging microbe threat all over the world.

Candida auris, first identified in 2009, causes serious multidrug-resistant infections in hospital patients and has high mortality rates. It causes bloodstream, wound and ear infections and has also been isolated from respiratory and urine specimens.

Photo: AFP / Kateryna Kon / Science Photo Library