Silver leaf disease is a curse for a variety of botanicals, from pears to roses to rhododendron. Infecting their leaves and branches, the fungus Chondrostereum purpureum can be fatal for the plant if not quickly treated.
Aside from the risk of losing the occasional rose bush, the fungal disease has never been considered a problem for humans. Until now.
In what researchers suggest is the first reported case of its kind, a 61-year-old Indian mycologist appears to have contracted a rather serious case of silver leaf disease in his own throat, providing a rare example of a pathogen seemingly making an enormous leap across entire kingdoms in the tree of life.
A recently published case study describes a male patient in India’s eastern region presenting to a medical center with a cough and hoarse voice, fatigue, and difficulty swallowing. A CT X-ray scan of his neck revealed a pus-filled abscess next to his trachea.
Lab tests failed to find any bacteria of concern, but a special staining technique for fungi revealed the presence of long, root-like filaments called hyphae.