In a happy coincidence March 15th marks 2 major steps forward in treating fungal meningitis in AIDS. The World Health Organization has accepted the pre-qualification of flucytosine application from Mylan. This means greatly accelerated approval of this life-saving drug in at least 32 countries, in a very short time frame. Dr Sile Molloy (St, George’s… Read more »
GAFFI’s program to reduce deaths from fungal diseases with HIV in Guatemala in 2017 shows that at least 55% of serious infections in AIDS are fungal, dwarfing tuberculosis. Over 2,000 HIV patients were tested from across the country and 371 (16%) had a life-threatening infection that is always fatal without therapy. The diagnostic and training… Read more »
Aspergillosis, lung and sinus disease caused by the fungus Aspergillus, affects around 15 million people and kills over 1 million each year. Announced today at the 8th biennial Advances against Aspergillosis international conference in Lisbon starting on February 1st, are the 5 aspirational targets for aspergillosis to be achieved by 2030: Survival in invasive aspergillosis… Read more »
Dr Rita Oladele, GAFFI’s Ambassador in Nigeria has highlighted a worrying lack of diagnosis and reporting of histoplasmosis in African countries. Despite being an AIDS-defining infection, much basic information about histoplasmosis is lacking, including accurate incidence/prevalence rates, morbidity/mortality rates, and outcomes. This is due to haphazard reporting in regions with more basic laboratory and imaging… Read more »
Havana, 11th December: (Read this in Spanish). Alongside the 80th anniversary of the Cuban Tropical Medicine Institute, 200 scientists and doctors sought common actions to reduce the stigmatizing burden of chromoblastomycosis. This persistent and progressive fungal infection is usually caused by a trivial injury, usually on the leg or arm, and has recently been recognised… Read more »
Skin specialists around Pakistan have highlighted the fact that common fungal infections affecting the skin are now the leading cause of patients visiting skin hospital and clinics. Despite the prevalence of such infections and the reality of 3.2 million Pakistanis living with serious infections including keratitis, which can cause blindness, and the life-threateningCandida auris infection, researchers… Read more »
A worldwide increase in the frequency of fungal diseases has been reported in the last 3 or 4 decades. Knowing each country’s burden and epidemiologic trends of fungal diseases is necessary to prioritise prevention, diagnostics and therapeutic strategies. Country estimates for the burden serious fungal diseases have been published by Leading International Fungal Education (LIFE)… Read more »
Estimates of the number of serious fungal infections in Turkey, (population 79.8M), Norway (5.2M), Malawi (17.7M), Argentina (43.6M) were presented today in Belgrade at the Trends in Medical Mycology (TIMM) meeting. Fungal asthma was especially common in Argentina and Norway (606 and 340/100,000) and fewer cases in Turkey at 87.3/100,000, although there is likely some… Read more »
The Global Action Fund for Fungal infections, GAFFI, (www.gaffi.org) has been operational for 4 years and among its many successes, none is more important or indicative of its work, than directly saving lives in Guatemala. This program of implementing well known diagnostic tests in a reference laboratory, has picked up 139 life-threatening fungal infections in… Read more »
One of GAFFI’s priority diseases is fungal (mycotic) keratitis, which leaves 100,000’s blind in at least one eye each year. Professor Matthew Burton is a Wellcome Trust funded clinical researcher focused on corneal infection. He brings deep expertise in to GAFFI in microbial keratitis, with years of experience in Africa and many international collaborations. Matthew… Read more »
