Nearly 20 million people are living with aspergillosis, and over a million die each year. Yet awareness, diagnostic capacity and therapy is not available for many. World Aspergillosis Day publicly recognises this underserved group of people aiming to reduce health inequalities.
The Fungal Infection Trust has been a major supporter of education and research in aspergillosis since 1991. It has donated over £4.4 million primarily to:
• Support the encyclopaedic Aspergillus Website and Patients websites since 1998
• Enable over 250 peer-reviewed research papers to be published
• Building much of the infrastructure to attract NHS funding for the National Aspergillosis Centre in Manchester
• Funding the educational website LIFE-Worldwide providing detailed information on the commonest fungal infections in English and Spanish since 2012, and now hosts a wide range of clinical and educational videos
• Directly funding the antifungal drug interaction database, website and Android app, supporting doctors, pharmacists and patients with safe prescribing
The FIT has supported research and education grants in many countries including in Europe: UK, France, Spain, Germany, Ukraine, Hungary; in The Americas: USA, Brazil, Venezuela; in Africa: Namibia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Uganda, Mozambique, South Africa and in the Far East: India, Nepal.
Philip Oxnam, Chairman of the Trust, commented: “FIT is the leading charity supporting patients, relatives, healthcare professionals and researchers in the understanding of fungal diseases in the UK. The Trustees have especially focussed in recent years in developing multiple online training and clinical resources to enable accurate diagnosis and therapy of fungal disease, which may have gone undiagnosed without the training, often with fatal outcomes. We really appreciate the ongoing contributions made by charity, companies, families and friends who support our vital work.”
