Can You Really Get Sick from Smelling Dirty Socks?

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▼ A man in China had a habit of walking home from work every day, taking off his socks and… taking a great big whiff of them, according to news reports.
Bizarre? Yes. But harmful? Well, according to a video posted on the Chinese platform Pear  Daily, also yes. The video says that the 37-year-old man was hospitalized for chest pain, and was diagnosed with a fungal infection in his lungs — an infection that his doctors attributed to fungal spores that he had inhaled from his socks.
But is it even possible to get an infection like this from smelling socks?
Technically, yes — but it's very unlikely that something like this would happen, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who was not involved with the Chinese man's case. Indeed, Schaffner noted that in his "long clinical experience," he'd never heard of a case like this. The case is "very interesting, if true," he added.
However, the lack of details about the case in local news reports, such as what kind of fungus caused the infection, makes Schaffner "kind of dubious to start with,” he said.
Biologically, it's possible for someone to develop a lung infection by inhaling fungal spores that had built up heavily in someone's socks, Schaffner told Live Science.
Indeed, lung infections from inhaling fungal spores are well-documented.  (▪ ▪ ▪)

► Please, read the full note/article here: Source