Ep 125 Blastomycosis: How fungus became amongus

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.8 • 17.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2023

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fungal infections don’t often make an appearance on this podcast, but when they do, you know you’re in for a wild ride. In this episode, we explore the rare but potentially deadly fungal infection blastomycosis. We trace the journey of Blastomyces spores as they depart from their cozy homes of decomposing wood and make their way first into mammalian lungs before possibly moving into the skin, intestines, and brain. How and why these fungi can be so deadly is our next stop, one that takes us into an unexpected direction: the fall of dinosaurs, the rise of mammals and the role that pathogenic fungi played in this transition. We delve into why comparatively few fungi are pathogenic to humans and how our warm-bloodedness may protect us. But, as we discuss in the episode’s conclusion, that protection may be weakened as our warming planet selects for fungi that can tolerate increasing temperatures. Dinos, dogs, deep time, and deadly outbreaks - this episode has it all.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Many put their hope in Dr. Serhat.
0:02.6	His company was worth half a billion dollars.
0:05.2	His research promised groundbreaking treatments for HIV and cancer.
0:09.5	But the brilliant doctor was hiding a secret.
0:12.9	You can listen to Doctor Death, bad magic,
0:15.4	exclusively an ad free by subscribing to Wundry Plus in the Wundry app.
0:20.2	The case was under the care of Dr. Dering in Philadelphia, by whom it was diagnosed clinically,
0:26.0	as a typical example of chronic scrophylloderma.
0:30.0	By his courtesy, I received a portion of the disease tissues, but was unable to demonstrate
0:35.9	the presence in it of the tuberculosis. In the course of the examination, however, numerous curious bodies were found distributed here and there throughout all the sections.
0:48.0	They presented the appearance of parasites and the discovery rendered the case one of peculiar interest.
0:55.0	Unfortunately, the matter could not be followed out as closely as could have been desired,
1:00.0	as no more material could be obtained, the patient having been operated upon and the whole
1:04.7	lesion having been removed. Three months after our first brief report, Otto Busse published a case in which apparently similar bodies were demonstrated.
1:15.4	Still later, other observers have found lesions in animals, horses, guinea pigs, etc,
1:22.0	in which very similar bodies have played a pathogenic role, but the present
1:27.0	appears to be the first recorded case in which they have given rise to pathological processes
1:32.2	in man.
1:33.7	In reporting the case before the American Dermatological Society, I expressed the opinion
1:38.6	that these bodies in all probability would be found to belong to plant rather than to animal life, and further
1:46.2	examination appeared to verify the conclusion that they might be classed as Blastomysides. Oh, Oh, I'm so curious to see where they went after that.
2:37.6	I'm so curious to see where they went after that.
	...

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