Fungal eye infections leave over half a million people blinded each year, international research team says
October 22, 2020.
Between 1 and 1.4 million fungal eye infections occur in the developing world per year, leaving over 600,000 blind say researchers from Manchester, London and Nairobi.
Biological drugs & ABPA
October 9, 2020
Evidence is mounting for the use of biological drugs (e.g. Xolair, Nucala) for ABPA in asthma and cystic fibrosis patient
Mycetoma more widespread than previously thought
September 26, 2020
Nearly 20,000 cases and patients with mycetoma are now described in the literature going back to 1876. In a new paper from Darcy Emery and David Denning, cases have been described for the first time from the United States, Venezuela, Italy, China and Australia, greatly extending the range of this chronic infection. Overall, mycetoma…
New study finds Invasive aspergillosis (IA) affects up to 2 million people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) globally
September 13, 2020
New findings from the University of Manchester published in ‘BMC Pulmonary Medicine’ today found 753,000 – 2,272,000 COPD patients develop invasive aspergillosis among the 58 million hospitalised each year. Emily Hammond and Charles McDonald who co-authored the paper reviewed the results of other papers published worldwide between January 2000 and May 2019 and found that…
Fungal prostatitis due to cryptococcus and endemic mycoses
September 1, 2020
Fungi such as Cryptococcus, Histoplasma and Coccidiodes can survive antifungal therapy by residing asymptomatically in the prostate of immunocompromised patients, in some cases leading to relapse…
Smoking appears to increase the risk of IFI, particularly from dimorphic fungi
August 27, 2020
A meta-analysis by Pourbaix et al found a overall risk ratio of 1.41 when comparing risk of IFI in smokers to non-smokers, particularly for infections caused by dimorphic fungi such as histoplasmosis, blastomycosis and coccidioidomycosis…
Fungal disease experts call for antigen detection techniques to be implemented for AIDS globally based on extensive Guatemalan experience
August 11, 2020
Research paper reveals non-culture testing for histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis and TB in AIDS is far more sensitive than microscopy or culture In a research paper published today in the prestigious journal AIDS, Narda Medina and colleagues from the Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections (GAFFI) and Asociacion de Salud Integral, Guatemala City evaluated the diagnostic performance…
Over a million people in China suffer from life-threatening aspergillosis
August 5, 2020
Almost no one survives invasive aspergillosis without antifungal therapy. Thought to affect up to 300,000 each year across the world, a new research paper from Fudan University in Shanghai, China and the Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections (GAFFI) now estimates that 1,179,000 people suffer from invasive aspergillosis in China alone. This estimate excludes COVID-19…
Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis rarely cured, but managed with long term fluconazole
August 3, 2020
Dr Collins and colleagues followed 147 women taking weekly fluconazole and found that 73% continued taking it for more than 6 months. Resistance was found in 6.8% of strains…
PAHO issues guidelines on disseminated histoplasmosis in HIV/AIDS
Posted June 22, 2020
Disseminated histoplasmosis is under-diagnosed and as a result, is the cause of death in up to 20% of people dying of AIDS. Antigen detection in serum or urine is more sensitive and faster than conventional diagnosis, usually based on culture, or histopathology of skin lesions or bone marrow. Today the Pan American Health Organization has…
Detecting candida auris in skin and nasal swabs by PCR
June 18, 2020
Malczynski and colleagues in Chicago developed a PCR screening test for Candida auris that gave 100% concordance with cultures grown from the same samples, but required the sample to be resuspended in PBS-BSA first – the swab transport medium Amies completely inhibited the PCR reaction…
Itraconazole improves lung function and symptoms in treatment resistant asthma
June 2, 2020
While itraconazole is not recommended in current clinical guidelines for severe asthma, evidence is building that some patients may benefit. A new study by Dr Mirsadraee and colleagues in Iran found that it improved asthma control in patients without fungal biomarkers…
Fungal keratitis among children in north India
May 20, 2020
Dr Manisha Singh and colleagues present a series of 104 cases of infectious keratitis in children (<16 years) attending an eye hospital in New Delhi (North India). Of 100 cases in which Gram and KOH smears were performed, microbes were identified in 76%: bacteria alone (40%); fungi only (25%); acanthamoeba only (3%); both bacteria and fungi (8%). The fungi most frequently identified by culture were Fusarium (14 cases), Aspergillus (9 cases) or unidentified dematiaceous (brown-pigmented) fungi (6 cases).
How common is chronic pulmonary histoplasmosis? No one knows, but it is likely global and grossly under-diagnosed
May 7, 2020
First described in in 1948 and acknowledged as a separate clinical entity in 1953, many patients with chronic pulmonary histoplasmosis (CPH) languished in US tuberculosis sanatoriums, until picked out in the 1950’s. In one sanatorium in Missouri, 7.2% of ‘TB patients’ actually had CPH. In a review just published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Jacob…
Voriconazole trough levels are higher in males and in older patients
May 5, 2020
Voriconazole trough levels among Italian hospital patients were highly variable and were affected by age, sex and BMI. Around a third of males and nearly half of females had subtherapeutic levels (<1mcg/ml)…
A new systematic review and a 91-case series shed light on aspergillus endophthalmitis
April 8, 2020
Aspergillus endophthalmitis is difficult to treat and often results in poor outcomes. A recent systematic review (Spadea & Giannico, 2019) and a large series of 91 cases (Dave et al, 2020) provide an update on the most effective ways to diagnose and manage this serious condition…
Data are mounting for COVID-19 and aspergillus co-infections
March 30, 2020
***Updated 1/5/20*** Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis is a well-known complication of severe influenza, but it is not yet clear whether it could be a major co-infection in COVID-19 cases…
Loss of taste with terbinafine the most common side effect – FDA reports
March 23, 2020
Wang & Lipman analysed 26 years’ worth of adverse event reports made to the FDA for several antifungals, and found that taste disturbance was most common for terbinafine (12%)…
Sexual problems and recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC)
March 11, 2020
Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) is an unpleasant condition surrounded by taboos. Two new studies (one in Iran, one in São Paulo/New York) found lower quality of life and higher rates of depression among sufferers…
Mucormycosis – 21 month, 12 centre prospective study in India finds 52% mortality
March 9, 2020
A survey of 465 mucormycosis cases in India found a mortality rate of 52% over 90 days, and diabetes was the most important underlying condition in 74%…
Neglected, market failures, public health failures
February 26, 2020
Writing in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Marcio Rodrigues and Joshua Nosanchuk highlight the numerous reasons why fungal diseases are so neglected. They point to a science failure – including inadequate funding. They detail research funding for different diseases by numbers of deaths: malaria $1,315, tuberculosis $334, diarrhoeal diseases $276, compared with $31 for…
World’s first lateral flow assay for Histoplasma antigen launched
January 16, 2020
In a ground-breaking development for patients with AIDS, the world’s first lateral flow assay able to detect Histoplasma antigen has been launched by MiraVista Diagnostics, based in Indianapolis, USA. Diego Cáceres and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) independently evaluated the new LFA in serum samples from patients and controls in…
Candida bloodstream infection in the USA
January 6, 2020
A recent CDC Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report estimated the incidence of candidaemia in the US at around 9/100,000 which equates to >28,000 cases annually, with an overall mortality of 25%. 10% of cases are in IV drug abusers, 33% in diabetics and 17% in cancer patients.
Beta-D-glucan useful for diagnosing paracoccidioidomycosis
January 2, 2020
Results of antibody testing for paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) are variable between laboratories, so a group in São Paulo evaluated the Fungitell beta-D-glucan assay. Sensitivity was 97%, and titres were high for patients with either the acute or chronic form of the disease. However, it cannot distinguish between PCM and several other fungal infections…