ATHENS, Ga. — The new HBO hit "The Last of Us" opens on an ominous note: A scientist on a talk show in the '60s shares his view that a fungus pandemic - as in, the worldwide spread of a fungal infection, rather than a viral one like COVID - would essentially be unstoppable.
There are no treatments, he explains, no cures and no vaccines. It's not meant to be especially worrisome in the 1960s, because human body temperatures are too hot for fungi.
"But what if that were to change?" he asks. "What if, for instance, the world were to get slightly warmer? Well, now there is reason to evolve."
Fast forward a few decades in the show, and that's what you've got - an evolution of some sort has allowed a fungus called Cordyceps to survive in humans and has sparked a zombie apocalypse of infected, mushroom-headed human hosts.
Good news! It's not exactly a viable threat in the real world. But fungal infections do already cause complications and even many deaths - particularly among people who are immunocompromised - and the pandemic-like spread of a fungal pathogen isn't exactly impossible.
A top fungal disease official with the CDC told the news site Insider that he would not be "surprised that more fungi emerge as human pathogens, that become more challenging to treat and more infectious."
But, there's more good news: the University of Georgia has developed an experimental vaccine targeting fungal infections.
According to the school's news site, the vaccine would protect against the three most common fungal pathogens - Aspergilus, Candida and Pneumocystis - which are currently responsible for more than 80% of fungal infections that result in death.
“Because it targets three different pathogens, the vaccine has the potential to be groundbreaking regarding invasive fungal infections,” Karen Norris, who was the lead investigator on a new study of the vaccine's efficacy, told the UGA site. “Plans are underway to develop the vaccine for a Phase I (human) safety trial.”
The study found the vaccine was effective in four different immunosuppressed models, meant to mimic what happens to the systems of people being treated for HIV or cancer, for instance.
"The vaccine showed broad, cross-protective antifungal immunity in the animal models, which bodes well for future clinical trials," UGA reports.
Norris, the study author, said the results indicate the vaccine candidate - NXT-2 - is "very strong."
"Data in multiple animal models support the concept that immunization with a pan-fungal vaccine prior to immunosuppression induces broad, cross-protective antifungal immunity in at-risk individuals," the study abstract states.
So while there's very little chance of an actual fungal apocalypse, at least there's some backup on the horizon - just in case.