Fungal infections and disease have long been overlooked in terms of healthcare burden, with poor diagnostics and limited options for treatment and management. In 2022, the WHO published its first Fungal Priority Pathogens List as an effort to establish a global prioritised framework that addresses unmet research and development needs in fungal disease and antifungal resistance, as well as guides public health action [1]. In this episode of Communicable, Angela Huttner and Josh Nosanchuk invite Hatim Sati (WHO), the project lead in creating this list, and Dimitrios Kontoyiannis (MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas), a clinician researcher studying fungal diagnostics and antifungal discovery, for a candid discussion on the making of and relevance of such a list. Apart from reviewing the fungal pathogens, the conversation also covers limitations of the list, what to expect for the next iteration, contextualising the list in one’s local region, and the impact the list has had already on research funding and public awareness.

This episode was edited by Kathryn Hostettler and peer reviewed by Andrisa Xhaxha from Elbasan, Albania. 

References

Related podcast episodes

Further reading