Posts Categorized: Uncategorized

The current ‘black hole’ in Public Health Mycology has been increasingly recognised by GAFFI as a major problem worldwide. Professor Donald Cole brings broad expertise in public health to support GAFFI in responding to this major gap. He was founding Director of the Collaborative PhD Program in Global Health at the University of Toronto and… Read more »

There is a critical need for new antifungal drugs, which is hindered by their slow development and increasing drug-resistance to current weaponry in the fight against serious fungal infections. An article, published last week in Perspectives in Science and co-written by GAFFI President Professor David Denning, reviews the current arsenal of antifungal drugs and prospective… Read more »

Around 10 million people in Africa receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV infection, but mortality during the first year of treatment particularly in the first few months, is very high, much higher than in Europeans. Notably tuberculosis and cryptococcal meningitis account for the majority of deaths in Africa in HIV patients. A paper published in the… Read more »

The early detection and treatment of fungal meningitis and pneumonia can save hundreds of thousands of lives, for a cost of ‘only $30’ per HIV patient, the world’s first stakeholder meeting on fungal diseases has concluded. The meeting in Seattle, was hosted by GAFFI (Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections) and held in Seattle. Policy… Read more »

In the first study of Candida bloodstream infection in 27 Intensive Care Units (ICU) in India, an incidence of 6.51 cases per 1,000 ICU admissions was seen, equating to ~90,000 cases nationally. Mortality varied from 35-75%; about 40,000 deaths. An estimated 14.3 million patients are admitted to ICUs in India each year. The true burden… Read more »

Crucial talks took place yesterday (January 27th) in Dehli to highlight the plight of millions of people in India who die needlessly of fungal infection because of poor diagnosis and treatment. Leaders from GAFFI, the Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections, met with India’s Health Minister JP Nadda, following talks with country representatives of the… Read more »

Late in 2014, the World Health Organisation issued guidelines for the management of several HIV-related skin and oral diseases, in low resource settings. Led by Prof Rod Hay (International Foundation for Dermatology, London) and Toby Maurer (UCSF School of Medicine, San Francisco), all the clinical trial evidence for diagnosis and management was scrutinized using the… Read more »

The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) will spend £19 million (Sh2.7billion) in wealth creation projects in Kenya in 2015. Kenya is one of GAFFI’s ‘demonstration’ countries with improved diagnostic facilities planned for all the major hospitals.   The planned investment is aimed at helping the Kenyan economy achieve a 10 per cent growth rate… Read more »

Pioneering health charity GAFFI  is today calling on the World Health Organisation (WHO) to help hundreds of thousand of AIDS and HIV positive patients worldwide by including itraconazole on the Essential Medicine List (EML). GAFFI’s application to  the WHO, in collaboration with the International Foundation for Dermatology, pinpoints key fungal diseases in AIDS for which… Read more »

 A Brazilian University is forming a new international partnership with researchers from Manchester to carry out more research into the  fungal lung infection which causes chronic illness in  at least three million people worldwide and has a fatality of 75%. Colleagues at the Escola Paulista de Medicina-Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP) will work alongside… Read more »