• Question: Why are there not as many vaccines for fungal disease than viral and bacterial disease?

    Asked by anon-254064 on 13 Jul 2020. This question was also asked by anon-256919.
    • Photo: Ashfaq Ahmad

      Ashfaq Ahmad answered on 13 Jul 2020: last edited 13 Jul 2020 9:41 pm

      Hi Aimee,
      In the past, Fungal infections were not considered to be as dangerous as bacterial and viral infections, because our immune system protects us from most of the fungal infections. Most of the serious or life-threatening fungal infections occur in immunocompromised people such as those with the weakened immune system (HIV/Aids & chemotherapy patients) and those patients constitute a small portion of the population, therefore the incentive to develop vaccines has remained low.

      However, the number of fungal infections has increased over the years in immunocompromised patients and hence the overall mortality. As a result, a focus has NOW been shifted to developing new treatments and vaccines for fungal pathogens and some fungal vaccines are now in the preclinical and clinical (against Candida Spp.) phases.

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