The World Health Organization (WHO) published Tuesday its first-ever reports addressing the critical lack of medicines and diagnostic tools for invasive fungal diseases, showing the urgent need for innovative research and development (R&D) to close these gaps.
Fungal diseases are an increasing public health concern, with common infections – such as candida, which causes oral and vaginal thrush – growing increasingly resistant to treatment.
These infections disproportionately impact severely ill patients and those with weakened immune systems, including individuals undergoing cancer chemotherapy, living with HIV, and who have had organ transplants.
WHO’s report on antifungal drugs highlights that, in the past decade, only four new antifungal drugs have been approved by regulatory authorities in the United States of America, the European Union or China. Currently, nine antifungal medicines are in clinical development to use against the most health-threatening fungi, as detailed in the FPPL.
The new diagnostics report shows that while commercially available tests exist for fungal priority pathogens, these rely on well-equipped laboratories and trained staff, which means that most people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) do not benefit from them.
Health workers often have insufficient knowledge about fungal infections as well as the impact of fungi growing more resistant to treatments, resulting in limited ability to perform the testing needed to determine the appropriate treatment.
WHO calls for strengthening the global response against invasive fungal diseases and antifungal resistance, and is also developing an implementation blueprint for the FPPL.
