Rising Threat: Lancet Study Labels Fungal Infections as Silent Pandemic
Fungal infections are also adapting beyond the means of our medicine, causing a Silent Pandemic that needs to be addressed urgently, according to a new Lancet Study.
"The threat of fungal pathogens and antifungal resistance, even though it is a growing global issue, is being left out of the debate,” explains molecular biologist Norman van Rhijn from the University of Manchester in the UK.
Fungal infections, they write in a correspondence for The Lancet, are left out too many initiatives to tackle antimicrobial resistance.
Without urgent attention and action, some particularly nasty fungal infections, which already infect 6.5 million a year and claim 3.8 million lives annually, could become even more dangerous.
"The disproportionate focus on bacteria is concerning because many drug resistance problems over the past decades were the result of invasive fungal diseases, which are largely under-recognized by the community and governments alike," write van Rhijn and his colleagues.
"To treat deep or invasive fungal infections, only four systemic antifungal classes are available and resistance is now the rule rather than the exception for those currently available classes," write the authors of the correspondence.
“Even before the newer drugs reach the market after years of development and clinical trials fungicides with similar modes of action are developed by the agrochemical industry resulting in cross-resistance for critical priority pathogens," explain the researchers in their correspondence.
"Antifungal protection is required for food security. The question is, how do we balance food security with the ability to treat current and future resistant fungal pathogens?"
It's a conundrum that has been discussed at length for antibiotics but not so much for antifungals. Van Rhijn and his team recommend a global agreement to limit certain antifungal drugs to specific purposes, as well as collaborative regulations to balance food security with health.
The UN's meeting this September "must serve as a starting point" for an orchestrated and diverse approach to antimicrobial resistance, the researchers conclude.
Reference: van Rhijn, N., Arikan-Akdagli, S., Beardsley, J., Bongomin, F., Chakrabarti, A., Chen, S. C., ... & Hagen, F. (2024). Beyond bacteria: the growing threat of antifungal resistance. The Lancet, 404(10457), 1017-1018.
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