There is no denying that it has been another tumultuous year in terms of global infectious diseases, particularly in India, which saw the world’s first major outbreak of mucormycosis affecting over 40,000 people (with COVID-19 and usually diabetes), and is the epicentre of the resistance outbreak caused by the new skin fungus Trichophyton indotineae.
Despite this, GAFFI’s annual report shows concrete progress in saving and improving the lives of those blighted by fungal disease.
The list of achievements is considerable:
- Listing of 3 key diagnostics as Essential by the WHO – Aspergillus antigen and antibody and Pneumocystis PCR. Many countries do not yet have these available.
- Listing the antifungal drug class ‘echinocandins’ on the WHO’s Essential Medicine List. A few countries have not licensed any of the 3 echinocandins.
- Public health demonstration of falling mortality in AIDS, thanks to rapid diagnostics, in a country-wide programme in Guatemala.
- Publication of country burden estimates of fungal disease papers for the first time for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Togo, Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan and Indonesia; a total population of 400 million people.
- Multiple awareness and medical education events all over the world are delivered by GAFFI’s growing Ambassador network.
GAFFI’s team and Ambassadors published 43 papers, delivered dozens of educational events, and posted 20 news items, most of which were also press releases.
GAFFI also increased its status as a go-to source for information on diseases such as mucormycosis as it was cited in at least 25 international news outlets during the outbreak, including, Reuters, The Guardian, The Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, iNews and more, providing explanation and action steps for the viewership of those publications.
View the Executive Summary here: GAFFI Annual report 2021 Exec Summary
View the report here: Link to https://gaffi.org/annual-reports/