Blight

April 3, 2023
“Infectious fungi and fungus-like pathogens are the most devastating disease agents on the planet,” contends Monosson (Natural Defense), a science writer and former toxicologist, in this startling warning. She details the ecological havoc wreaked by fungi, describing how they fueled the Irish potato famine in the 19th century, drove the American chestnut tree to near extinction in the early 20th century, and decimated the North American bat population in the 2010s. The author paints a frightening picture of what might come next: a virulent strain of fungus similar to the one that ravaged East Africa’s wheat plants in 1998 could adapt to overcome the genetic advantages of disease-resistant crops, or there could be a fungal disease outbreak among humans, as there was when cases of the antifungal-resistant yeast pathogen C. auris, which has a 30%–60% mortality rate, popped up around the world in 2015. The factors driving such crises, Monosson argues, include agricultural practices that reduce genetic diversity in crops and climate change (she notes some scientists believe that the adaptations that C. auris developed to survive in warmer environs also enabled it to tolerate the human body). Monosson keeps the discussions of fungi biology accessible, and the battery of case studies of fungal outbreaks underscores the urgency of the threat. This wake-up call should not go unheeded.

Starred review from May 1, 2023
A fascinating look at infectious fungi, "the most devastating disease agents on the planet." A former toxicologist and author of Unnatural Selection, Monosson begins her latest book with a discussion of Candida auris, a fungal pathogen that was first described in 2009, when it was isolated from the ear of a Japanese woman. Deadly and highly resistant to antifungal drugs, C. auris has recently been flagged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a serious global health threat. While it might be new to Homo sapiens, "over the past century," writes the author, "fungal infections have caused catastrophic losses in other species." The uptick could be the result of climate change. For mammals, the author explains, the primary line of defense against fungal infection is body temperature, which is too warm for most fungi to thrive. However, a warmer general environment may enable fungi to "evolve a higher temperature tolerance" and "jump the temperature barrier." Monosson takes readers on a tour of devastation wrought by various fungal pathogens in other species. She follows a biologist who set out to study frogs in Costa Rica and inadvertently ended up documenting the "great frog die off," the result of an amphibian chytrid fungus. The author then moves on to rusts, a group of pathogenic fungi similar to mushrooms that infect trees. Beginning in the early 1900s, a rust called chestnut blight obliterated between 3 billion and 4 billion American chestnuts in a few decades, pushing the species into functional extinction. One of the more distressing fungi is Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which has killed North American bats in droves; the author describes "caves that smelled like death" and "mice eating moribund bats that were too ill to fend them off." Monosson is a skilled writer, capable of translating complicated scientific topics into compelling layperson's terms, and she crafts a thrilling narrative around even the less charismatic victims of fungal pathogens (bananas, for example). An engrossing read with an urgent message about the next frontier of disease.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from May 15, 2023
When it comes to disease-causing microorganisms, fungi frequently fail to garner the same respect and dread that viruses (COVID-19, rabies, Ebola) and bacteria (tuberculosis, anthrax, "flesh-eating" Group A streptococcus) elicit. When people do think of fungus maladies, it's usually athlete's foot, thrush, and vaginal yeast infection that come to mind. Environmental toxicologist and science writer Monosson (Unnatural Selection, 2014) commendably serves as a medical Paul Revere by persuasively warning us that dangerous fungi are already causing havoc among plants, animals, and humans, and more are on the way. Fungi are omnipresent. Global travel and climate change facilitate the spread of potentially harmful fungi. Serious fungal infections in humans include aspergillosis, cryptococcosis, coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever), and Candida auris illness (an especially grave infection often unresponsive to usual antifungal medications). More than 1.6 million people worldwide perish annually from fungal infections. Monosson thoroughly reviews the wallop of fungi on wildlife, including white-nose syndrome wiping out bats and the demise of frog populations from chytridiomycosis. Many kinds of trees are threatened by fungus (white pine blister rust, cedar-apple rust). Even the beloved Cavendish banana, is endangered by an aggressive fungus (fusarium wilt). Pathogenic fungi are experts at surviving. They make formidable foes. Neglecting these emerging organisms is truly hazardous to health.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.