Fungal Pathogens: NCDC Issues Public Warning
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has issued a public warning about a significant threat posed by a fungal infection.
Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, the Director-General of NCDC, gave the warning in Abuja, at the stakeholders’ meeting addressing the morbidity and mortality from invasive fungal diseases in Nigeria.
He said; “Fungal pathogens are a major threat to public health as they were becoming increasingly common and resistant to treatment with only four classes of antifungal medicines currently available, and few candidates in the clinical pipeline.
”Most fungal pathogens lack rapid and sensitive diagnostics and those that exist were not widely available or affordable in the country,” he said.
The NCDC boss said that the invasive forms of these fungal infections often affect severely ill patients and those with significant underlying immune system-related conditions.
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Meanwhile, Dr Rita Oladele, a microbiologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), said that the NIFUSCAB project is being driven by NCDC with the data generated being stored in its data repository.
She said that the World Health Organisation AMR programme recognised the significant role that fungal infections play in in-hospital outcomes of patients, so they recently (2022) generated a WHO fungal priority pathogens list.
“Nigeria as a country has taken the bull by the horns and started surveillance for these priority pathogens and as well have built capacity in six teaching hospitals in the country to readily conduct surveillance and better manage the patients at risk of these diseases,” she said.
She said that this makes the country, one of the first countries to start surveillance of these diseases in Africa.
“All hands must be on board to ensure the success of this programme because the data generated would help develop policies that would guide better management of the Nigerian patient,” she advised.
