Photomicrograph of a mycosis or fungal infection.
Nephron (CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED)
Just 11 years ago, scientists estimated that about 2 million people worldwide died from fungal infections every year. According to a new study in the renowned journal The Lancet, that number is now almost double: approximately 3.75 million deaths.
According to the University of Manchester study, there are approximately 6.55 million patients with acute cases of fungal diseases every year. Expert David Denning and his team analyzed medical data from more than eighty countries.
Underlying conditions
The updated mortality figures imply that fungal diseases are considerably more dangerous than some other pathogens: fungal infections claim six times more lives than malaria and almost three times as many as tuberculosis. It should be noted that fungal infections can have different causes.
Fungal infections claim six times more lives than malaria and almost three times as many as tuberculosis.
Mycoses, the medical term for fungal infections, therefore weigh a lot more heavily on the global health system than previously thought. According to Denning, previous estimates were inaccurate because many fungal infections can quickly worsen pre-existing serious conditions, such as leukemia or AIDS.
Still, a majority of deaths, about 68 percent or 2.55 million, are directly attributable to fungal infections, according to the study. About 1.2 million patients, 32 percent, had other underlying diseases, with fungal infections contributing to death.
Other causes of death
A striking finding in the study is that approximately one-third of the 3.23 million deaths worldwide from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are linked to infection with the fungus Aspergillus.
According to Professor Denning, almost a third of the 1.2 million patients whose cause of death was diagnosed as pulmonary tuberculosis actually died from fungal infections.
‘We have to take fungi very seriously.’
The researchers estimate that of the 312,000 deaths worldwide from leukemia in 2020, about 14,000 could be attributed to aspergillosis and other fungal infections.
Candida, another type of fungal infection, appears to be a serious problem in patients in intensive care, or in complex surgical procedures, diabetes, cancer and kidney failure and in premature babies.
“There are no vaccines against fungi,” Denning explains. ‘Serious mold illnesses usually occur when people are already sick, with only a few exceptions in healthy people and in people who live or work in moldy homes or work environments. Therefore, an accurate and timely diagnosis is very important. We have to take fungi very seriously.’
2024-01-19 04:00:59
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