Issue Emerging fungal health and food security risks, including multidrug-resistant strains

Summary

The report holds that alongside new strategic opportunities, fungi bring emerging risks for health and food. In public health, the appearance of multidrug-resistant strains has turned a fungal health crisis, until recently seen as unlikely, into a realistic scenario. It adds that resistant strains such as Candida auris and widespread fungi such as Aspergillus fumigatus have contributed to a rise in invasive fungal infections. These risks are not limited to direct human infection and can be amplified by ecological disruption, while in agriculture yield losses in key crops could reach 20 percent. The report sees metagenomics, gene editing and imaging, within a One Health approach, broadening the development of new vaccines and antifungals. Ignoring these signals, it warns, means taking on growing risks to health, food security and ecosystem stability.