A parasitic fungus species that infects humans and turns residents into zombies is indeed just a fictional story. But viruses or other diseases might attack humans and become a disaster like in the movie The Last of Us.
According to a biologist from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Professor Rosichon Ubaidillah MPhil, PhD, parasitic species only infect insects or other invertebrates.
A parasitic species can turn any living creature it hosts into a zombie host, and control it to do anything, from spreading parasites, to killing itself.
"Insect zombies may not be the kind that can attack humans," Rosichon said on live Eureka! Zombie attack, Monday (30/1) night.
It takes millions of years for parasites to "jump" to attack human vertebrates and other mammals. Even to jump to a different species, according to him, is not easy.
"It took millions of years of co-evolution for parasite and host association to occur under the process of natural selection," said the bespectacled man.
However, according to Rosichon, we can take lessons from films like The Last of Us which provide an overview of how 'zombie' attacks can occur.
"Diseases that arise may not be from parasitic species, but from other viruses or other dangerous diseases that are similar to that which can occur in humans," said Rosichon.
The evolutionary process and the effects of climate change, said Rosichon, have made it possible for what are called emerging infectious diseases and re-emerging infectious diseases to emerge, namely new infectious diseases and old diseases that reappear.
"I'm not frightening. COVID-19 is a very valuable lesson that there may be a jump of the virus from animals, previously in bats to humans," he explained.
"We must be vigilant, therefore we must be kind to nature, in harmony with nature so that we are not affected by disasters like in The Last of Us," he concluded.