Fungal Disease Awareness Collection

The number of fungal infections worldwide, particularly opportunistic infection, has increased dramatically over the last 35 to 40 years. This is due to several factors including changes in demographics, the increased number of immunocompromised or transplant patients, as well as the use of improved diagnostic methods to detect fungal infections. However, the need for new therapeutics and preventative measures remains critical. Although it is ideal to prevent these infections, work on vaccines has been extremely slow and under-studied, with no commercially available vaccines to date. Commercially available antifungals remain limited to either: polyenes, allylamines, azoles/triazoles, and echinocandins. Use of these antifungal therapeutics has improved the outcome of many infections greatly, but new, more efficacious agents or treatment regimens remain a critical need. The CDC designated the week of September 23, 2019, as Fungal Disease Awareness week, with a focus on coccidioidomycosis, histoplasmosis, and blastomycosis. In keeping with this effort to further recognition and education on the importance of fungal infections, Medical Mycology is releasing this collection of articles focused on the prevention of and therapy for several fungal infections.  We encourage the reader to search our regular journal issues, supplements, and virtual topical collections for the many other relevant articles on prevention and management of different fungal infections. There, the reader can find articles pertinent to both humans and animals.

Karl V. Clemons, PhD

Editor-in-Chief

Medical Mycology