List of fungal “Priority pathogens” released by WHO informs people about global health threats.
Reports on the Fungal Health Threats
A list of 19 fungi has been published by the World Health Organization (WHO). This list highlights the “Fungal Priority Pathogens List” (FPPL) which is considered a major threat to the global community. This list is based on research studies by the University Of Sydney, Australia.
From the health official’s statements, it is clear that many countries lack diagnostic tools for these fungal infections and they suffer a lot from having higher death tolls.
This report framed by WHO will act as a call to action among drug developers, doctors, governments, and health experts to know about its sense of urgency.
Categories of fungi based on FPPL
As per the reports, the WHO’s FPPL list is divided into three categories namely critical priority, High priority, and medium priority.
Critical priority: This category includes the highly drug-resistant fungus, Candida Auris, which was first identified in Japan in 2009. Once this enters the bloodstream it becomes very difficult to treat. It has a mortality rate of 30%. This category also includes Aspergillus fumigates, cryptococcus neoformans, etc.
High priority: this category includes the fungi called Mucorales which causes “Black fungus” or “Mucormycosis”.It mostly affects people with comorbidities and posts covid patients. It has a mortality rate of about 54% and should be treated at the earlier stages for a permanent cure.
Medium priority: It includes the fungi Coccidioides spp and Cryptococcus gattii which are mostly found in the soils of North and South America. It has a mortality rate of about 20-40%. It mostly affects the immune system of our body.
Views on Fungal Infections
The Antimicrobial Resistance team lead wHO, Dr. Carmem Pessoa-Silva said, “Fungal infections are now widespread but they are not diagnosed and treated correctly. WHO monitors the presence of candida’s bloodstream infections in 23 countries and WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) will give reports soon on this. The treatment options for all these three categories are very toxic and it’s also limited. So there is a huge need for these laboratory developments.” the chief executive of the advocacy group Global Action for Fungal Infections, Dr. David Denning said, “Research in Kenya has found that, if these fungal infections have been diagnosed and treated early it would have saved lives of about 5,000 HIV affected people. But the widespread testing costs around $50,000 annually.”
Thus these invasive fungal infections affect most patients suffering from immune disorders. They include mostly the people affected by cancer, HIV, TB, organ transplants, etc.
