First ever case of human being struck down by killer plant fungus: Healthy Indian mushroom hunter was left with agonising abscess in his windpipe
• Man in India is first to have caught a type of plant fungal disease
• Scientists say 61-year-old caught chondrostereum purpureum from mushrooms
An Indian mushroom hunter has caught a fungal disease deadly to plants in a world-first case.
The 61-year-old sought help after suffering from flu-like symptoms and difficulty swallowing for three months.
Baffled doctors carried out scans that showed he had an abscess in his windpipe.
Surgeons drained the pus and sent samples to a lab, which revealed he had caught chondrostereum purpureum.
The fungus causes silver leaf disease in plants, which is spread by airborne spores and turns plants’ leaves the metallic colour before slowly killing them.
It is thought he got infected while carrying out research as a plant mycologist, which involves working directly with moulds, yeast and mushrooms.
The man, who wasn’t named, had been working with ‘decaying material, mushrooms and various plant fungi for a long time’, according to doctors who treated him.
The case ‘raises serious questions’ because it proves the infection can affect both ‘healthy as well as immunocompromised individuals’, they warned.
Writing in the journal Medical Mycology Case Reports, medics at Consultant Apollo Multispecialty Hospitals said the patient attended hospital complaining of a recurring cough, hoarseness of voice and fatigue which he had been unable to shift for three months.
Q+A: Everything you need to know about silver leaf disease
What is it?
Silver leaf is a fungal disease of the wood and leaves of some trees, especially plums, apples, apricots and cherries.
It is caused by the plant pathogen chondrostereum purpureum and is a common progressive and often fatal disease.
According to the Royal Horticultural Society, the fungus name ‘Silver Leaf’ refers to a gradual silvering of leaves on affected plants which then die off.
How is it spread?
The disease is normally spread by airborne spores infecting newly exposed wood through cuts in a trees bark.
The fungus infects the wood through wounds and causes a silvering of the leaves followed by death of the branch.
How did it spread to humans?
Scientists believe he contracted silver leaf disease from chondrostereum purpureum while carrying out research as a plant mycologist.
The 61-year-old from Kolkata, who wasn’t named, had been working with ‘decaying material, mushrooms and various plant fungi for a long time’, medics said.
Is it a cause for concern?
To treat the disease medics used CT images for guidance to insert a needle and perform aspiration – removing the excess fluid from the abscess.
Once the pus was completely drained and sent for testing, the man was given two courses of antifungal medication for two months.
Two years of follow up appointments revealed the man had suffered no complications and there was also no evidence of the disease recurring.
But the case ‘raises serious questions’, researchers warned, because it proves the infection can affect both ‘healthy as well as immunocompromised individuals’.