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A global study has found that the annual total of deaths from fungal disease worldwide has risen to 3.75 million, double the previous estimate.
The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, also calculated an annual total of about 6.55 million acute cases using data from over 80 countries. Although fungal disease has multiple causes, the updated mortality figures dwarf deaths from other single pathogens, killing six times more people than malaria and almost three times as many as tuberculosis. Around 68% of the deaths linked to fungal disease were likely to have been directly caused by it. Around 1.2 million deaths had other underlying diseases, with fungal disease contributing.
The study also found that pulmonary tuberculosis could be the cause of death in 1.2 million people in 2019, with 340,000 (28%) of these potentially being fungal disease deaths. Candida, another type of fungal infection, is a serious problem in intensive care, complex surgical patients, diabetes, cancer, renal failure, and premature babies.
(Source:https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01-deaths-fungal-disease-globally.html)