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Clinical aspects and recent advances in fungal diseases impacting human health

Summary

Fungal infections affect over a billion people worldwide and are becoming harder to treat due to growing resistance to antifungal medications. The review discusses major challenges in detecting and treating these infections, including difficulty in diagnosis and limited awareness among healthcare providers. New antifungal drugs are being developed and approved to address these challenges, but a comprehensive approach involving better awareness, improved testing, and responsible medication use is needed.

Background

Fungal diseases affect over a billion people globally, ranging from allergies to life-threatening invasive fungal infections (IFIs). The burden of fungal infections is a growing public health problem exacerbated by emergence of new pathogens, resistant strains, and resurgence of previously uncommon diseases. An estimated 6.5 million IFIs occur annually with approximately 2.5 million attributable deaths.

Objective

This review explores key aspects of fungal diseases in humans and provides an overview of clinical challenges, recent diagnostic advances, and emerging antifungal treatments. The article addresses the need for improved disease awareness, better diagnostic methods, and development of new antifungal drugs with improved resistance profiles.

Results

The review identifies major challenges including limited public awareness, diagnostic difficulties, rise of antifungal-resistant organisms, and limited treatment options. Three new antifungals have been approved (ibrexafungerp, oteseconazole, rezafungin), with additional agents like olorofim and fosmanogepix under clinical evaluation. Combination therapies are recommended for certain resistant fungal infections.

Conclusion

Addressing fungal disease challenges requires a multifaceted approach including increased awareness, improved diagnostics, better surveillance, responsible antifungal use, and targeted interventions for high-risk populations. There is an urgent medical need for novel antifungals with broad activity against resistant molds and intrinsically resistant species.
  • Published in:Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy,
  • Study Type:Review,
  • Source: PMID: 40085539, DOI: 10.1093/jac/dkaf004
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