Why scientists are nervous about fungi

Global Health Why scientists are nervous about fungi April 17, 20269:14 AM ET By  Gabrielle Emanuel This is a strain of Candida auris cultured in a petri dish at a laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's a form of yeast that can harm humans — and is resistant to the most common antifungal drugs. Shawn Lockhart/CDC via AP hide caption toggle caption Shawn Lockhart/CDC via AP Combatting bacterial and viral infections is getting tougher because of their growing resistance to drugs. Antibiotic drugs can no longer be counted on to conquer nasty bacteria. Antivirals don't always overpower the viruses. This is a huge problem but it is one that widely acknowledged and researched. There's an additional medical challenge though, that matters a lot. Namely, drug-resistant fungi. Yep, fungi. It's a topic that doesn't get discussed much — and that worries Paul Verweij, professor of clinical mycology at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He says there's a "silence surge" in drug-resistant fungi and that it's mostly happening under-the-radar. Sponsor Message Goats and Soda 'The Last Of Us' made us wonder: Could a deadly fungus really cause a pandemic? This is a particular challenge in lower-income countries. "Look at, for instance, Candida auris [a type of yeast that can cause severe infections and is often drug-resistant] -- you need very, very strict infection control measures in hospitals, you need good diagnostics, good infection control, you have to follow-up with patients and that's just not available in these lower- middle-income countries," he says. "People will die, and you won't know they have a fungal infection. You wouldn't know if it was resistant." Verweij teamed up with 50 scientists around the world – from Brazil to Nigeria to China — to call for action against drug‑resistant fungi in Nature Medicine this week. NPR spoke with Verweij, who's been working on this issue for more than 20 years. His interview...