At the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Conference in Amsterdam the first world guidelines for chronic pulmonary aspergillosis have been presented by GAFFI’s president Professor Denning. The guidelines have been drawn up in conjunction with the ERS and ESCMID and will be published in the European Respiratory Journal in October. The guidelines describe the 5 clinical… Read more »
An increased working collaboration between the UK and China was reinforced today at the UK-China Health Policy Dialogue, by Vice Premier Liu Yandong and Minister for Health Jeremy Hunt. Areas of increased co-operation included multi-level health systems support, new antimicrobial development and health infrastructure support in Africa. There was also a focus on antimicrobial resistance…. Read more »
In Israel, 40,000 people are estimated to suffer from fungal rhinosinusitis, and unprecedented figure and the first national estimate of this problem. About 800,000 (10%) Israelis are thought to suffer from rhinitis. Fungal rhinosinusitis takes many forms and is often associated with asthma, but not always. The terminology for allergic fungal rhinosinusits is slightly confused… Read more »
Early in August, Professor Denning visited Lanzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Guangzhou meeting clinicians, visiting laboratories and educating physicians about the large burden of fungal disease and the opportunity for improved diagnostics. He cited one example from China of the likely number of deaths from invasive aspergillosis in COPD patients. Of the estimated 32.8 million people… Read more »
Guatemala could soon be leading the way in providing better fungal diagnostic services for HIV patients in Central America, thanks to a partnership between the Asociación de Salud Integral (ASI), and Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections (GAFFI). Amongst a population of 14.7 million, an estimated 58,000 people are HIV infected, but only 15,136 patients… Read more »
Today, May 5th at the ISHAM conference GAFFI has launched the project ‘95-95 by 2025’ at Melbourne in Australia, calling on all national governments and public health agencies to reduce the toll of death and blindness from fungal diseases. 95-95 means 95 percent of patients with life or sight-threatening fungal disease are diagnosed and 95 percent… Read more »
Fungal disease burden in another nine countries covering a further 490.5 million people has been estimated by LIFE collaborators. Data from Nepal and Thailand in Asia, Canada, Ecuador and Chile from the Americas, Jordan and Egypt from the Middle East, and Indonesia and New Zealand from Oceania bring the total countries with fungal burden estimates, undertaken… Read more »
The current ‘black hole’ in Public Health Mycology has been increasingly recognised by GAFFI as a major problem worldwide. Professor Donald Cole brings broad expertise in public health to support GAFFI in responding to this major gap. He was founding Director of the Collaborative PhD Program in Global Health at the University of Toronto and… Read more »
There is a critical need for new antifungal drugs, which is hindered by their slow development and increasing drug-resistance to current weaponry in the fight against serious fungal infections. An article, published last week in Perspectives in Science and co-written by GAFFI President Professor David Denning, reviews the current arsenal of antifungal drugs and prospective… Read more »
Around 10 million people in Africa receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV infection, but mortality during the first year of treatment particularly in the first few months, is very high, much higher than in Europeans. Notably tuberculosis and cryptococcal meningitis account for the majority of deaths in Africa in HIV patients. A paper published in the… Read more »
