Doctor in the House: No Fun In Fungal Infections

Will Ellie find out the truth about what Joel did? This is the cliffhanger question in the season finale of ‘The Last Of Us’, a TV series about a zombifying fungal infection that has destroyed civilisation for 20 years. While viewers have to wait for Season 2 to find out whether a vaccine will ever be invented for this deadly fungus, the Health & Living team has another question in mind: Is this pure science fiction and video game territory, or could fungal infections cause a global, deadly pandemic? We speak to Dr Rukumani Devi Velayuthan, clinical microbiologist and mycology diagnostic head unit coordinator of the Mycology laboratory at University Malaya Medical Center, about why fungal infections need to be treated as a public health threat. 

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