If you're in temptation to image search cerebral fungal infection, don't.

There are a lot of pathogens that cause long term, sometimes minor or sometimes major ailments - mono, lyme disease, HPV, etc. There may be many many more we don't know about. Could we identify them by blending up a dead persons brain, then DNA sequencing the pulp? Any non-human DNA can then be investigated, and with data from enough people we might start to see patterns, like "this particular non-human genome causes alzheimer's" or "this causes lung cancer".

Jesus, I can't read this, it's too much. Poor guy. I wish him all the best.

Why can’t they inject the anti-fungal drugs beyond the blood brain barrier manually if it isn’t passing through from the blood?

This is terrifying and I genuinely hope they cure this for all of humanity’s sake.

Beautifully written, horrifying story. Had no idea this kind of "illness" even existed.

UK reader here .. I'm genuinely interested in how the author of this article would afford the medical expenses for this treatment. I know about the insurance, but I'd imagine that this wouldn't cover everything?

> Every now and then, I reach out to someone I find on the internet with my affliction but they never respond.

Probably because they're dead. There's no auto-reply for that. It would be interesting if that was possible to affix to personas, optionally. If there was an identity system that could notify forums and emailers and messengers that response isn't possible. Some way to have a resolution.

in the first shared house I lived in, my flat mate (ex-partner of the holder of the lease but in the same dwelling... it was awkward) was acting erratically in the first couple of weeks. It was kind of assumed the break up was getting to him.

One night I heard him cursing outside my door (not at me, just generally). The next day he apologized and said things were overwhelming him at times.

Within a day or two they admitted him to the hospital our house actually backed onto; I can't quite remember why, I think he may have blacked out at the house while I was at work.

They put out the word for his father to fly into the country, but he passed within a day.

It was fungal meningitis; something I didn't even know existed, but apparently can be caused by various forms. I don't know if he had a weakened immune system, but it shook me that someone just living in an urban environment in a wealthy country could simply contract this and pass within days.

Part of the brain sticks out into the sinuses. I'm guessing he likely breathed it in.

> I hate thinking that this whole chapter of my life was because I didn’t have enough air pressure in my bicycle tires. It has to mean more.

When your mystical purpose is unremarkable.

So the real question is... If there are only 120 cases of this disease worldwide... Where did it come from originally, and how does it spread from person to person.

If the drugs can't enter due to the BBB isn't the only chance to prime his immune system to handle it? Maybe another use case for specialized mRNA vaccines?

I got black mold several times in the places i lived.

Never live in a moist home.

I really should clean up the black mold in my apartment