Fungal Disease Spiked During Covid Pandemic and Pathogens Spreading Due To Climate Crisis, WHO Says

Health-threatening fungi are spreading in geographic range due to climate change, while some fungal diseases spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to authors of a newly released World Health Organization report. From a report: On Tuesday the WHO published its first ever list of fungal priority pathogens, cataloguing 19 organisms that experts identified as being of the greatest threat to public health. "Currently, fungal infections receive less than 1.5% of all infectious disease research funding," the report found, suggesting the true health burden of fungi is unknown, while "most treatment guidelines are informed by limited evidence and expert opinion." The WHO's assistant director general of antimicrobial resistance, Dr Hanan Balkhy, said in a statement: "Emerging from the shadows of the bacterial antimicrobial resistance pandemic, invasive fungal diseases are growing ever more resistant to treatments, becoming an ever more pressing public health concern worldwide." Dr Justin Beardsley, of the University of Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute, who led a group commissioned by the WHO, said historical research underspending was out of step with the "huge burden of disease" of fungal infections. "They're causing as many deaths as tuberculosis, and more than malaria," he said.

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