WHO publishes first-ever list of dangerous fungi, warns global health threat

The World Health Organisation has compiled the first ever list of fungal diseases that are most dangerous to human health and has issued a warning that some strains are becoming more and more common and drug-resistant.

According to the U.N. organisation, fungal diseases and their rising resistance to treatment are a rising problem. The organisation has similar lists for viruses and bacteria. Nevertheless, there were significant knowledge gaps as well as a lack of monitoring, therapies, and diagnostics due to a historical lack of focus on the threat.

The absence of data made it difficult even to assess the scope of the threat, according to WHO, who urged governments and researchers to make significant efforts to improve the strategy to the 19 fungi on the list.

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Here’s the list published by World Health Organisation

According to their potential impact and information on their risk of developing resistance, the pathogens are divided into three priority levels on the list: critical, high, and medium.

The crucial group consists of Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Candida auris, a highly drug-resistant pathogen that has been responsible for numerous outbreaks in hospitals around the world.

The mucormycosis or "black fungus" fungi, which cause an infection that rapidly increases in critically ill people, notably in India during COVID-19, are among the fungi in the high category. Other fungi from the Candida family are also included. Fungi called Nakaseomyces glabrata (Candida glabrata), Histoplasma spp., eumycetoma causative agents, Mucorales, Fusarium spp., Candida tropicalis and Candida parapsilosi were listed.

Other fungi are included in the medium group, such as Cryptococcus gattii and Coccidioides spp. Scedosporium spp., Lomentospora prolificans, Pichia kudriavzeveii (Candida krusei), Talaromyces marneffei, Pneumocystis jirovecii and Paracoccidioides spp were some more in the list.

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"Emerging from the shadows of the bacterial antimicrobial resistance pandemic, fungal infections are growing, and are ever more resistant to treatments, becoming a public health concern worldwide," stated WHO Assistant Director-General for antimicrobial resistance Dr Hanan Balkhy.

People, who are already very ill, such as those with cancer or tuberculosis, are frequently struck by fungal infections, and during the pandemic, rates increased among COVID-19 hospital patients.

There are only four different types of therapy, and there aren't many new ones being researched or developed. According to the WHO, infection incidence and geographic range are expanding as a result of climate change, and the overuse of antifungals in agriculture is contributing to the rise in resistance.

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(With inputs from Reuters)