How The Last Of Us Cordyceps Infection Started (& How It Spreads)

How The Last Of Us’ Cordyceps Infection Started (& How It Spreads)

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The Cordyceps Brain Infection featured in The Last of Us franchise is actually based on a real-life fungal infection that can affect insects.

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How The Last Of Us Cordyceps Infection Started (& How It Spreads)

The Cordyceps Brain Infection (CBI) is the fungal infection responsible for wiping out half of society in The Last of Us franchise. Even though the infection is central to the plotline, and both the original game and sequel provide insight into how it spreads, the details can be easy to miss.

In the original The Last of Us, the outbreak initially begins in September 2013. The fungus infects an individual while they are still alive, as the infection can only affect living bodies, not dead ones. CBI can be spread through a bite from an infected individual or exposure to spores. Infected individuals go through four stages of infection, each being more grotesque than the next. The infected individual will begin showing symptoms within a couple of days, and then by stage two, they’ll begin showing aggressive and unexplainable behavior as the fungus takes hold of their brain. The fungal growth begins taking over their body, leading to deformities.

Eventually, by stage three, the fungus is covering the infected individual’s eyes, rendering them blind. Characters in the game refer to these sorts of zombie-like creatures as Clickers due to their reliance on echolocation to get around. Finally, by stage four, the individual will have the fungus covering almost all of their body. At an advanced stage, the infected may be able to shoot spores out of the fungus growing on them.

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TLOU2’s Cordyceps Brain Infection Is Based On A Real Fungus

How The Last Of Us Cordyceps Infection Started (& How It Spreads)

A newspaper clipping in The Last of Us that can be found at Joel and Sarah’s house reveals the infection began spreading after a series of crops became infected in South America. “The Food and Drug Administration’s investigation of crops potentially tainted with mold continues across the country,” the article reads. “Initial lists distributed to vendors nationwide warned against crops imported from South America, but now the scope has extended to include Central America and Mexico. Several companies have already voluntarily recalled their food products from the shelves.”

But the Cordyceps Brain Infection was based on a real-life fungal infection that affects insects. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is a fungal parasite that infects and then kills insets, namely Formicinae ants, Inverse explains. Victims of the fungus go through a drastic physical change in addition to the physiological component, as the fungus begins growing from within the insect, much like how the cordyceps overtake an infected body in The Last of Us franchise, thereby slowly killing the host from the inside. The infection featured in the games is actually partially based on a famous episode of Planet Earth that shows an ant becoming infected by Ophiocordyceps unilateralis and eventually dying. In the games, the infection has mutated, explaining why it’s able to infect humans.

However, in reality, this condition can only affect insects, not people. Due to the nature of the fungi, it would be impossible for Ophiocordyceps unilateralis to mutate and wreak havoc on human bodies. Cordyceps Brain Infection (CBI) is one of the scariest parts of The Last of Us franchise but luckily it can’t really impact humans in real life.

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/last-us-outbreak-cordyceps-infection-origins-spores-real/

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