Abstract
Life expectancy in the West is the highest it has ever been, due to the introduction of better hygiene practices and sophisticated medical interventions for cancer, autoimmunity and infectious disease. With these modern advances, a rise in the prevalence of opportunistic infections has also been observed. These include several fungal infections, which present a particular clinical challenge due to the lack of fungal vaccines, limited diagnostics and increasing antifungal drug resistance. This mini-review outlines how modern-day clinical practices have shaped the recent increase in fungal diseases observed in the last few decades. We discuss new research that has implicated the use of immune-modulating drugs in the enhanced susceptibility of vulnerable patients to life-threatening fungal infections.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 45 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-11 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Pathogens |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 4 Apr 2019 |
Keywords
- Aspergillus
- Candida
- antibiotics
- corticosteroids
- fungi
- ibrutinib
- macrophage
Access to Document
- pathogens-08-00045
Clark, C & Drummond, R. (2019) 'The hidden cost of modern medical interventions: how medical advances have shaped the prevalence of human fungal disease', Pathogens, vol. 8, no. 2, 45, pp. 1-11. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens8020045