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Woman branded 'patient zero' after touching 'Last of Us zombie fungus' outside her home

Gretchen Testa found real 'The Last of Us' cordyceps fungus outside her home and picked up a 'zombie ant' and people are dubbing her 'patient zero'

[The Last of Us, cordyceps, patient zero, zombie, ant, tree, forest, apocalypse ]

Woman grows cordyceps in her basement and branded basement zero after handling 'zombie ant' (Image: mushroommusketeer/Instagram)

A woman has been dubbed patient zero after touching the zombie fungus that inspired hit TV show The Last of Us outside her home.

The HBO doomsday thriller envisages a world ravaged by the cordyceps fungus destroying humanity and creating a swarm of zombies in its place.

Fungi-obsessed Gretchen Testa has now caused a stir after she posted a TikTok video of a cordyceps-infected tree right next to her house.

READ MORE: Man accused of 'trying to start Last of Us' by growing apocalyptic 'zombie fungus '

She even grows the fungus in her basement and eats it and says it can make you have better boom boom with your partner.

Gretchen, known as Mushroom Musketeer, left viewers alarmed when she found a zombie ant which had been brutally killed by the fungus.

[The Last of Us, cordyceps, patient zero, zombie, ant, tree, forest, apocalypse ]

Gretchen found the cordyceps riddled ant in a tree right near her home (Image: mushroommusketeer/Tiktok)

But she gave TikTokers more cause for concern when she said: Theres thousands of [zombie ants] on all the beach trees, thousands.

Experts said that cordyceps can grow through the insect's body, draining it of nutrients and hijacking its mind.

Luckily, humans core body temperature is too high to allow cordyceps to grow.

However, an infectious disease professor at Yale School of Medicine, Scott Roberts, had a stark warning.

[The Last of Us, cordyceps, patient zero, zombie, ant, tree, forest, apocalypse ]

The Last of Us sees cordyceps mutate to withstand human body temperature causing the end of civilisation (Image: HBO)

He wrote on their website: In The Last of Us universe, rising temperatures cause Cordyceps to evolve and adapt to human body temperatures.

Concerningly, this somewhat parallels real life.

Climate change is another risk factor for fungal diseases that has given rise to a worrisome pathogen.

Mushroom-obsessed Gretchen remained unphased and carried on her hunt.

The zombie ant hunter added: If you live in the South, this is likely right outside your door. Lets go find it.

[The Last of Us, cordyceps, patient zero, zombie, ant, tree, forest, apocalypse ]

As well as hunting the fungus, Gretchen even grows cordyceps in her basement and eats it (Image: mushroommusketeer/Instagram)

She spotted some cordyceps on a beach tree next to her home which had taken a poor ant hostage.

She said: Oh this ones really low. Im following the branch.

There is our zombie ant. Zombie ant, you see it. Thats what he was talking about!

One person commented: Thats it, we found patient zero.

Another replied: Girl gonna be patient zero now. [Because] cordyceps watching her take the branch.

Gretchen is also an advocate for eating cordyceps, explaining that she grows the zombie fungus in her basement.

[The Last of Us, cordyceps, patient zero, zombie, ant, tree, forest, apocalypse ]

'Cooking with cordyceps', she said it pairs greats with a BLT(Image: mushroommusketeer/Instagram)

A third wrote: Well, at least we know who patient zero is now.

She highlighted a number of its benefits, and said: Better lung capacity, better workouts, better boom boom time with your partner.

She has a number of cordyceps cooking videos, including Cordyceps are the star of this BLT with brie.

But health implications of eating the fungus are reportedly unclear.

In a WebMD article, Dr Neha Pathack said: We don't have much conclusive research about whether cordyceps has real health benefits.

She added that its been popular in traditional Chinese medicine, and people take cordyceps as a daily treatment for good health.

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