A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

[littlemissmartypants]

By Tina Hesman Saey
June 17, 2026 at 3:00 pm

WASHINGTON — Microbiologists are used to looking at gross pictures and hearing scary statistics. So when a moderator of a session on emerging fungal infections at the ASM Microbe meeting uttered the words “somewhat terrifying,” it caught my attention. He was referring to a sexually transmitted skin infection that is becoming increasingly drug resistant. But what came next was even more horrifying to me.

Medical mycologist Shawn Lockhart stepped to the podium and began describing a fungal disease that attacks cats, causing oozing skin ulcers and worse, and spreads to humans. It isn’t yet in the United States … that officials know of. But the disease, caused by Sporothrix brasiliensis, has sickened and killed thousands of cats and infected more than 11,000 people and at least 200 dogs in South America since its emergence in Brazil in the 1990s.

“What we have right now is this ginormous ongoing outbreak of Sporothrix brasiliensis in Brazil,” Lockhart, a senior adviser at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said June 7. The fungus has spread beyond Brazil to cats, dogs and people in Paraguay, Chile, Argentina and most recently Uruguay.

“It’s just a matter of time” until the fungus reaches the United States, Lockhart told me after the session. “We’re waiting.”

Here’s why he’s so concerned.
...more...
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/deadly-fungus-cats-people-spreading

[Raven123]

1. That's frightening. Thanks for the info.