Advancing Patient Advocacy in Mycology: Cultivating Collaboration in Education, Research, and Policy.

In the healthcare landscape, diseases such as cancer and HIV/AIDS have benefited from the patient's perspective. For fungal diseases, the patient voice remains absent in critical areas such as policy formulation, funding decisions, and research priorities. Patients affected by fungal disease, along with their caregivers and advocacy groups, possess invaluable insights into the challenges and unmet needs they face.

Fungal biomarkers in HIV-associated disseminated histoplasmosis: a multicenter diagnostic accuracy study on the Guiana shield.

Objectives: Diagnosis of HIV-associated histoplasmosis remains challenging. Our objective was to compare the performances of (1→3)-β-D-Glucan (BDG) and aspergillus galactomannan (GM) antigen for the diagnosis of HIV-associated histoplasmosis.

Methods: We performed a diagnostic accuracy study using frozen primary serum specimens issued from consecutive hospitalized people living with HIV (PLWH) and blindly tested for BDG and GM using Fungitell and PlateliaAspergillus, respectively.

An Update on Fungal Disease Outbreaks of Public Health Concern.

For this narrative review, we describe recent high-profile and severe outbreaks of emerging fungal infections, emphasizing lessons learned and opportunities to improve future prevention and response efforts. Several themes and challenges remain consistent across a diverse array of fungal outbreaks, including the multidisciplinary need for improved diagnostic testing to determine species and perform antifungal susceptibility testing, clinical awareness, and optimization of antifungal use. Recent outbreaks exemplify the growing promise of non-culture-based tools in identifying fungal outbreaks and improving responses, although access remains limited.

Diagnostic Capacity for Fungal Infections in Tertiary Hospitals in Nigeria and Ghana - An Onsite Baseline Audit of 9 Sites.

Objectives: To assess diagnostic mycology capacity and available fungal diagnostic services of microbiology laboratories in eight tertiary hospitals in Nigeria and one in Ghana.

Methods: On-site audits were performed in the microbiology laboratories of nine tertiary hospitals using a structured observation checklist.

Results: A total of nine tertiary hospitals' laboratories in Nigeria and Ghana were assessed between June 2022 and December 2023.