OUR VISION A WORLD WITHOUT DEATHS FROM FUNGAL INFECTION.

News

Keep up to date with the latest news items from GAFFI.

Antifungal echinocandins added to the WHO’s Essential Medicines List

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Echinocandin antifungal drugs are the ‘workhorses’ of antifungal therapy in hospitals. The WHO has endorsed their importance by adding them to the 2021 Essential Medicines List for low and middle countries, for both adults and children.    Initially launched in 2002 in Japan and USA, micafungin (Astellas) and caspofungin (Merck) were the first to market… Read more »

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GAFFI IS NOW LOOKING FOR NEW BOARD MEMBERS

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GAFFI is committed to strengthening our board based on equality, diversity and inclusion of members with background from our geographical focus areas. We would appreciate, in our first step, to receive applications from female applicants with cultural background from outside Europe. Today we have a strong medical (fungal) expertise, management, marketing and HR are other… Read more »

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Climbing antifungal drug resistance in South-East Asia ‘worrying’

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Researchers say it is possible that increased agricultural fungicide use may be contributing to gradual azole fungal drug resistance in Aspergillus in South East Asia and around the world. Azole antifungals are the most important group for treating many fungal diseases. Resistance to azole in Aspergillus is much more prevalent in South East Asia than… Read more »

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Covid-19 reverses gains in survival rates in HIV patients

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Deaths rose from 16.6% to 27.3% during COVID, nearly 1 in 9 additional deaths, in Guatemala’s leading HIV centre in 2020 compared with 2019. Just published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases – Narda Medina and colleagues charted the provision of HIV care in Guatemala and how the global pandemic has affected diagnosis and… Read more »

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Doctors around the world call for rapid response to deadly mucormycosis (the so-called “black fungus”) found in COVID patients in India.

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Countries that are able should provide amphotericin B to Indian patients.     The Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections (GAFFI) is calling on those with supplies of amphotericin B to provide them to India. In India, there are estimated to be over 4000 people with mucormycosis, (described as “black fungus” because it makes tissues go black)… Read more »

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Dr Ana Alastruey-Izquierdo to coordinate GAFFI’s programs in Latin America and Caribbean

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Following her pivotal role in GAFFI’s successful program in Guatemala, GAFFI has seconded Dr Ana Alastruey-Izquierdo to run its programs in Latin America and the Caribbean on a part-time basis. Ana is an accomplished scientist currently at Spain’s National Mycology Reference Laboratory at the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). In recent years, Ana has… Read more »

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Rapid spread of Mucormycosis, the black fungus, spreading amongst COVID patients suffering from diabetes in India

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Leading global fungal infection charity GAFFI has issued guidelines to help patients and carers manage the condition Multiple reports from India have identified the otherwise rare fungal infection mucormycosis affecting many patients and leaving major disfigurement or death. High numbers have been seen in Gujrat, Maharastra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh and Punjab… Read more »

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Special Webinar Announcement: Ending Cryptococcal Meningitis Deaths by 2030: A New Global Initiative

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On May 12th a special Webinar will be held to outline the new push to “end Cryptococcal Meningitis Deaths by 2030”, for people with advanced from HIV disease. The Special Webinar registration link is: https://mailchi.mp/salud.unm.edu/announcement-cdcchaiunitaid-global-webinar-series-ending-crytococcal-meningitis-deaths-by-2030-1568406 There are still too many people with undiagnosed and untreated or diagnosed but under-treated fungal meningitis in AIDS, especially in… Read more »

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