Fungal diseases 'growing increasingly resistant to treatment,' WHO says

Some fungal diseases in humans no longer respond to medicines, which increases the risk of severe illness and death as well disease spread, according to a new report.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) published what it calls its first-ever report on the lack of tests and treatments for fungal infections.

Yeasts, moulds and mushrooms are all examples of fungi. Common toenail infections or vaginal yeast infections are common and treatable, but that's not always the case.

"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," WHO said.

Here are some key things to know about fungal diseases in Canada and around the world.

Fungal diseases are a type of infectious disease that spread from person to person, like touching someone who has the infection or sharing clothes with them, or in an environment, like from breathing in spores.

Biochemistry professor Gerry Wright says the WHO's reports draw attention to an important problem.

"All of us have someone in our lives that they know how it's been touched by cancer so it makes them vulnerable, or who have had a kidney transplant or a heart transplant or who has lupus," said Wright, who searches for new ways to kill fungal pathogens at McMaster University in Hamilton.

These conditions are all treated with immune-suppressing drugs, he says — and people with weakened immune systems are more susceptible to fungal disease.

Invasive fungal diseases occur when fungi enter blood, tissue and other places in the body that are normally sterile.

For fungi in the WHO's top "critical priority" category, mortality rates reach up to 88 per cent, it said in a release. 

"You can get lung infections, so fungal pneumonia," Wright said. "There's even certain kinds of fungi that have an affinity for the neurological system so you can get growth in the spinal cord and in the brain. Pretty much anywhere where you can think of would be a bad place for an infectious organism to be, fungi can make their way in there."

Better treatments for diseases like cancer mean more people are likely to be living with immunocompromised conditions, which also could mean increases in cases of invasive fungal diseases, the WHO said.

Rebecca Shapiro, an associate professor who studies fungal disease at the University of Guelph, pointed to a few other factors behind the increasing rates.