How Vaccines Could Help Ease the Threat of Deadly Fungal Infections

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The Wall Street Journal

Technology

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2023

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The risks from fungal pathogens are increasing. Severe infections used to be rare, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 75,000 people in the U.S. are hospitalized for fungal diseases each year, and the World Health Organization says rates of severe fungal infections are likely to increase as fungi adapt to warmer temperatures and become resistant to drugs. Could a vaccine be the answer? WSJ’s Danny Lewis explores how scientists are looking into new ways of reducing the threat from dangerous fungi. Further reading: Deadly Fungal Infections Confound Doctors—‘It’s Going to Get Worse’ Deadly Fungi Are Becoming More Common and We’re Running Out of Ways to Treat Them Dangerous Fungi Are Spreading Across U.S. as Temperatures Rise Fatal Fungi Threaten Global Health, WHO Says Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Join the Wall Street Journal online October 12th for WSJ Pro Sustainable Business Forum
0:05.8	and take away practical advice on how to build a sustainability strategy that's right for your business.
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0:18.7	slash Sustainable Business, no code required. That's WSJ.com slash Sustainable Business.
0:25.4	Before the winter of 2017, Larry Williams was an active guy. He grew up on a farm in Mississippi.
0:33.6	In the 90s, he moved to Barstow, California, just north of LA, where he spent more than 20 years
0:38.8	working at a rail facility. Even as he got into middle-age, he kept hiking, biking,
0:44.0	and playing all kinds of sports. No basketball, baseball football, you know,
0:49.6	loved golfing, but never as good at it, but I love it. They called me Bogey Williams.
0:58.4	But that year, right after Christmas, Williams came down with a really bad cold.
1:03.4	At least that's what he thought it was at first. I went to one of the local
1:10.9	pharmacies and loaded up on all kind of cold and flu meds. And I found out I was taking more of that.
1:19.0	Then I was actually eating, you know, and it just continued to get worse.
1:24.4	Williams couldn't eat much. Well, he did? He couldn't keep down. He had a fever. He couldn't sleep.
1:30.8	And then there were the night sweats. It got so bad that one night, I just stood outside
1:36.1	in 30 degrees temperatures. It was sweatpants on the ice pack on my head.
1:41.0	You know, and my neighbor was like, hey, man, you know, I'm really wrong with you.
1:46.2	He'd been to urgent care clinics, but by this point, he'd been sick for weeks.
1:50.5	A few days after he stood outside in the cold, Williams went to the hospital.
1:54.6	When he got to the emergency room, he says he was still burning up from the fever.
1:58.8	I sit down and like someone poured water on me and they're like, no, we need to get you in now.
2:06.2	Williams was in the hospital for days. He says doctors took his blood and ran tests,
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