Sri Lanka

Dr. Primali I. Jayasekera (MBBS, Dip. Med. Micro, MD), Consultant in Medical Mycology,
Head, Department of Mycology, Medical Research Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
  Email: Mailto 

 View the Fungal burden of disease in Sri Lanka: Article Is Fungal disease in Sri Lanka underestimated 2015;  TIMMS poster 2014 burden of disease

 Personal comment on the major needs in Sri Lanka which GAFFI should be addressing:

I was trained at the Regional Mycology Laboratory, Manchester and at National Aspergillosis Centre, Manchester with Prof David Denning and Prof Malcolm Richardson.

I am the only Medical Mycologist serving in Sri Lanka and my laboratory functions as the only diagnostic, reference & research laboratory in the field of Medical Mycology.

We have a large aging population and increasing immunocompromised population following transplantation, chemotherapy and chronic kidney disease (mainly).

In my country, diagnostic methods of fungal infections have to be improved eg: molecular methods, MIC detection for fungi, therapeutic drug level monitoring etc. The biggest challenge I am facing is  there are no local agents for these reagents and also the unaffordable cost of the reagents (eg: Myconostica Aspergillus PCR kit costs about US $ 2275.00 for 30 reactions without the extraction kit)

 Links to key fungal/global health institutions in Sri Lanka: WHO – http://www.who.int/countries/lka/en/    UNICEF - http://www.unicef.org/srilanka/