‘The Last of Us’: Does the Cordyceps Mushroom Exist That Could End Humanity According to HBO Series?

The Last of Usthe HBO series based on writer Neil Druckmann’s popular video game franchise, focuses on a different kind of infection: the fungal one, that is caused by fungi, not by viruses.

Unlike the walking dead or resident Evilin which the dead come to life, or 28 days laterin which a virus makes its hosts extremely violent, cordyceps mushroom Of The Last of Us takes over people’s brains.

This mushroom takes over humanity in a dystopian future, it grows spongy masses inside the bodies and sprouts from the eyes and forehead.

“The Last of Us”: the series where mushrooms finish off humanity​

In the HBO series humans stay alive as the infection is spread through bitesand over the course of a weekend, the fungus’ mutation triggered by global warming appears to have traveled the globe.

In the first episode of The Last of Us20 years have gone by with no progress being made against the fungal threat, due to the real-life similarities between fungi.

On the specialized site Medical sciencesDr. Ilan Schwartz, Duke University School of Medicine, who specializes in immunocompromised hosts and invasive fungal infections, notes that ‘Our cells are much more complex than, say, bacteria, and fungi are more closely related to people than to the bacteria that cause infections.

Dr. Schwartz added why there are only three antifungal agents compared to “many other classes of antibiotics. We have the problem that our opponent is closely related, which means that the cellular mechanism is the same as ours. There are far fewer targets for antifungals to work with, to selectively cause damage to fungal cells without causing harm to human cells.”

From these commonalities, plus the uncomfortable picture of climate change and the grotesque of the infected The Last of Usraised the doubt: To what extent should humanity be afraid of Cordyceps or any other large-scale fungal infection?

Could a mushroom wipe out humanity?

The topic of The Last of Us was inspired by a segment of Planet Earth of 2008 that Druckmann saw on how the parasitic fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateral it takes the body of a bullet ant and then grows from the ant’s head for further propagation.

There, narrator David Attenborough explains Planet Earth as there are thousands of different types of parasitic fungi, each centered around a specific species, with textured spores, neon orange poufs, and long gray tendrils that emerge from dead moths and beetles.

Although Ophiocordyceps and Cordyceps are different genera, but The Last of Us he was influenced by the latter and refers to the former in his account.

in the video game The Last of Usthe Cordyceps infection is partially spread through airborne spores, forcing uninfected characters to wear gas masks.

Dr. David P. Hughes of Pennsylvania State University, a Cordyceps specialist and 2013 video game science advisor, noted that the fungus attaches itself as a spore to the body of a host antit burrows into it over the course of the day and creates an internal network so that nearly 50% of the ant’s body is covered in fungi.

In the HBO series, however, the spores are abandoned – probably to avoid the cast always having to hide behind masks – in favor of mouth tentacles, and one bite from an infected person can transform someone in as little as five minutes.

The infected’s tendency to gnaw on anyone nearby doesn’t discourage comparisons to zombies, but fungi that spread through bites are not uncommon in nature.

​ For example, this scenario is similar to how the fungus Sporothrix brasiliensis is transferred and causes the sporotrichosis infection.

Sporothrix brasiliensis, a dysmorphic fungus that can exist as mold and yeast, can be breathed in as spores from contaminated plant material or spread through cat scratches and bites, and is becoming increasingly common in Brazil.

This fungus “causes thousands of infections a year. If one of those cats were imported elsewhere and scratched other cats, there’s a chance this fungus could spread around the world,” said Dr. Schwartz.

Cordyceps can’t infect humans yet, but thereSpores of other fungi that live in soil and animal droppings can and do pose a legitimate danger to immunocompromised people. Additionally, some fungi can spit out thousands of spores at a time as they travel a few inches in the air.

Namely, the scenario of this disease is possible. Although several factors should be combined.