Public Health Action on Fungal Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance

Dear Colleagues,

Fungal infections increasingly threaten human health and global food security. Despite this, fungal infections remain under-represented on the global health and research agenda. The development of the first World Health Organisation (WHO) Fungal Priority Pathogens List is an important landmark, building on work to incorporate fungal infections into the WHO Essential Medicines List and Essential Diagnostic List. However, several challenges remain. The population of susceptible hosts is increasing; novel threats continue to emerge, e.g., Candida auris; climate change is altering the ecology of fungal organisms; antifungal use in the environment drives resistance in potential human pathogens; antifungal resistance combined with a limited antifungal drug armamentarium limits treatment options and affects clinical outcomes; despite policy advances, access to diagnostics and therapeutics is limited, often where it is most needed; and so on. Although fungal infections are being incorporated into the WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System (GLASS) through the development of the GLASS-Fungi module, few countries have effective surveillance systems for fungal infections and their associated diseases.

A rapidly growing and perennially vocal community of academics, clinicians, policymakers, public health professionals, and other advocates interested in fungal infections continue to highlight the importance of fungi within their respective spheres of influence. The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight the important work being performed globally to raise the profile of fungal infections and antimicrobial resistance across all One Health domains—humans, animals, plants, and the environment. We invite colleagues to submit original research articles, reviews, short communications, and perspectives that fall within any of the following domains related to fungal infections and antimicrobial resistance across the One Health sphere, with clear relevance to public health measures:

• Policy;
• Advocacy;
• Surveillance;
• Public health interventions;
• Innovation;
• Antifungal stewardship;
• Laboratory capacity development;
• Patient and public engagement;
• Infection prevention and control;
• Fungal disease burden;
• Ecology of fungi.

Dr. Colin S Brown
Guest Editor

Dr. Christopher R. Jones
Dr. Emma Budd
Guest Editor Assistants

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Fungi is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• fungal infections
• antimicrobial resistance
• policy
• advocacy
• surveillance
• innovation
• ecology
• One Health
• disease burden
• infection prevention and control
• stewardship
• laboratory capacity
• patient and public engagement
• education