A fungus known for killing trees has infected a human for the first time, causing a pus-filled abscess to grow in his throat


Andrea Michelson
Fri, March 31, 2023 

Silver leaf tree fungus, or Chondrostereum purpureum,HHelene/Getty Images

A man in India visited a doctor for a sore throat that affected his ability to eat and swallow.

Doctors found an abscess in his throat, and it was full of a fungus usually only found on trees.

These infections may grow more common in humans as fungi adapt to warmer temperatures.

It seems like a scene out of "The Last of Us" — a fungus never before seen in humans has just been discovered growing in a person for the first time.

A plant researcher in India saw a doctor for a sore throat and learned he had a fungal infection growing in his throat, causing an abscess that had to be drained of pus.

Fortunately for him, this fungus was nothing like the Cordecyps seen in the hit HBO TV show. It's known to gardeners as silver leaf, a progressive disease that turns a tree's leaves silver before killing the infected branch.

The patient, a 61-year-old man, told doctors that he had a long history of working with decaying plant materials for research, according to a report published in the journal Medical Mycology Case Reports. He sought medical attention after three months of hoarseness, trouble swallowing, loss of appetite, cough, and fatigue.

Silver leaf is a common blight on stone fruit trees and some flowering shrubs, but this is the first time it has infected a human, according to the report. When the doctors analyzed the man's pus, they found it grew a "creamy pasty" fungal colony in a petri dish.

Their tests for fungi known to infect humans came back negative, so the doctors sent a sample to a local World Health Organization laboratory. DNA sequencing revealed that the fungus was Chondrostereum purpureum, the culprit behind silver leaf.

Climate change may help fungi adapt to infect humans

After doctors drained the man's abscess, they sent him on his way with a broad-spectrum antifungal drug. He took two pills a day for 60 days and made a complete recovery, according to the report.

While it's relatively rare for a healthy person to be infected with a fungus that usually preys on plants, it has happened before with other types of fungus. According to the case study authors, these infections may become more common as the world's temperatures rise.

"The worsening of global warming and other civilization activities opens Pandora's Box for newer fungal diseases," they wrote.

Michelle Momany, a professor of plant biology who studies fungi at the University of Georgia, told Insider that a fungus would have to evolve to live in warmer temperatures for it to really spread between humans. "The infection was in the throat, not deep in the lungs where the body temperature is higher," she said. Momany was not affiliated with the case report.

Even if it's unlikely that silver leaf will become a major threat to humans anytime soon, people who work with fungal spores should take caution with a high-quality mask to avoid inhaling a potential pathogen, she said.