Scientists are developing a new idea about the origins of a deadly fungus that they didn't even know about a decade ago - they think global warming might be to blame.

According to the research published Tuesday in the journal mBio, Candida auris was first discovered in a patient's ear in Japan ten years ago.  Since then, it didn't spread by radiating out from one point on the globe - but it has appeared simultaneously in different parts of the world, including India, South Africa, South America, and even in Australia.  

"It was really mystifying that Candida auris appeared at the same time in three continents," said the study's lead study author Dr. Arturo Casadevall, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  

That fact led the researchers to look for a common factor in all points of the planet - and that would be global warming.  

This is alarming to scientists, because fungus tends to thrive in cooler, damper environments, not the heat of a human body.  Until now, the fungus that vex humans tend to occur in the coolest parts of the body such as under the nails.  C. auris represents a fungus that is adapting to warmer temperatures.

"The fungal world is underappreciated and understudied," said Dr. Casadevall.  "What's protecting us is our temperature immunity."

"If more of these organisms become temperature resistant," he added, "then we're gonna have more problems in the future."

C. auris kills roughly one-third of patients it infects

"In the medical world, a fungal infection is one of the worst infections we deal with," said Dr. Frank Esper, an infectious-disease specialist at the Cleveland Clinic."

"We're already playing catch-up because it already has resistance to some of the most common medications that we have," he added.  "We're limited in what we can use to treat it."