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SEVERAL STUDIES HAVE BEEN CONDUCTED on the presence and diversity of airborne fungal spores in residential and occupational areas. This is the first investigation on this topic in the mining environment. The impact of fungi-especially as opportunistic pathogens—on their health and productivity needs to be assessed, considering the compromised health of a large number of HIV infected miners in South Africa. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to determine the abundance of fungal spores as well as the diversity of culturable airborne fungi in an active gold mine. The results indicate that three of the sampled sites in the mine contain abundant numbers of culturable airborne fungi. The first site was next to an auxiliary extraction fan, which could act as an accumulator for airborne fungal spores from the rest of the mine. The two other sites had high human activity, disturbances from which may contribute to an elevated fungal load in the air. The presence of timber supports at one site may serve as a growth substrate for several fungal genera. The diversity of filamentous fungal genera increased from outside the mine to deeper into the mine, whereas the diversity of yeast genera followed an opposite trend, with no yeasts detected deep in the mine. Although most of the isolates identified are not pathogens, they could still have a negative impact (either as opportunistic pathogens or allergens) on workers, especially immunocompromised persons if exposed to them for prolonged periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fungal co-infections, especially with Aspergillus and Candida species, are prevalent in hospitalised COVID-19 patients, and could influence patient outcomes and hamper treatment efforts. However, information about and elucidation of the causal relationship between fungal co-infections and COVID-19 disease outcomes or severity in patients are still lacking. Such information, if and when available, will help facilitate appropriate case management.

This study evaluated the potential of a biopolymeric flocculant produced by Terrabacter sp. isolated from Sterkfontein Dam, South Africa. Microbial flocculants aid the aggregation of suspended solutes in solutions, thus, suggesting its alternative application to inorganic and synthetic organic flocculants, which are associated with health-related problems. The 16S rDNA analysis revealed the bacteria to have 98% similarity to Terrabacter sp. MUSC78T and the sequence was deposited in the Genbank as Terrabacter sp. with accession number KF682157.1. A series of experimental parameters such as bioflocculant dosage, cations concentrations, pH, and application of the purified bioflocculant in wastewaters treatment were investigated. In the presence of glucose as a sole carbon source, Ca 2+ as cation at pH 8, the optimal flocculating activity attained was 85%. Optimum bioflocculant dosage of 0.5 mg/mL was able to remove chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), suspended solids (SS), nitrate, and turbidity in dairy wastewater. In addition, the tested bioflocculant exhibited higher flocculating efficiency as compared to polyaluminum chloride, polyethylenime, and alum. Inductible coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) analyses confirmed significant removal of 77.7% Fe, 74.8% Al, 61.9% Mn, and 57.6% Zn as representatives of heavy metals from treated dairy wastewater. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) indicated the presence of carboxyl, hydroxyl, and amino groups in the purified bioflocculant which could be responsible for flocculation. Findings from this study showed the prospect of the studied bioflocculant as an alternative candidate in wastewater treatment and remediating of heavy metals.