American Society of Microbiology Calls For Tracking System of Mold Illnesses

[Guest guest]

" Public health agencies should implement formal programs to report cases,

track disease progress, and design interventions in outbreaks of fungal

disease. The lack of reporting and tracking systems has made it difficult to

control the spread of fungal pathogens, because

good epidemiological data on the scope of infection is usually not

available. "

Fungi The Cause Of Many Outbreaks Of Disease, But Mostly Ignored

ScienceDaily*

(July 1, 2008) —

_http://www.sciencedhttp://wwhttp://wwhttp://www.scienhttp://w_

(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080701145522.htm)

Fungi can cause a number of life-threatening diseases but they also

are becoming increasingly useful to science and manufacturing every

year. However, many people, scientists among them, are largely

unaware of the roles fungi play in the world around us.

Research on fungi and fungal diseases are seriously neglected as a

result -- a situation with grave negative repercussions for human

health, agriculture, and the environment-health, agriculture, and the

Kingdom: Diverse and Essential Roles in Earth's Ecosystem, a new

report from the American Academy of Microbiology.

The report is the product of a colloquium convened by the Academy in

November, 2007, where experts in mycology, medicine, plant

pathogens, and ecology discussed the current state of research in

mycology and compiled a list of specific recommendations for future

work.

" The average person is at risk for several fungal diseases, from

toenail infections to athlete's foot to life threatening systemic

infections, " says Arturo Casadevall of the Albert Einstein College

of Medicine and one of the co-chairs of the colloquium. " Fungi may

also predispose people to asthma and allergic diseases, " says

Casadevall. Despite the frequency of fungal infections, according to

the report they are relatively understudied, making fungal

infections difficult to diagnose and treat. When faced with an

undiagnosed fungal infection, doctors are forced to treat their

patient without a firm grasp of which drugs will work and which

drugs will only cost the patient valuable time.

But fungi are more than just a medical problem: as the cause of more

than half of all plant diseases, fungi are also an expensive drain

on agriculture. The economic repercussions of managing fungal

pathogens on crops -- the money and effort spent, the numerous

pesticide applications, the consequences of these applications for

surface water and soil quality, and the impacts on crop yields --

are extraordinary.

In the environment, fungi are not seen as a liability but as an

integral part of their ecosystems They break down dead plants and

animals (organic matter) into the building blocks plants need for

growth and they engage in beneficial symbiotic relationships with

plants, all functions necessary for maintaining healthy ecosystems.

When an ecosystem is disturbed, fungi can behave in unexpected and

often destructive ways, as in the case of the black mold that is

overrunning the areas surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

in Ukraine and outbreaks of coral bleaching that are destroying

coral reefs. Scientists still do not understand fungi well enough to

predict how these organisms will behave when their environment is

disturbed.

Industry and food manufacturing benefit in many ways from the work

fungi do. " Fungi are workhorses for research and biotechnology,fu

according to ph Heitman of the Duke University Medical Center,

the other co-chair of the colloquium. " Both the hepatitis B vaccine

and Gardasil (the vaccine for papilloma virus) are produced in

yeast, " he notes.

The importance of fungi to human health, agriculture, the

environment, and industry demands that we gain a better

understanding of these organisms. Some of the report's key

recommendations include:

Evaluate the Impacts of Mold in Homes and Businesses

There is a serious lack of scientific data to support any stance

with respect to indoor mold toxicity or remediation. More effort

should be devoted to testing and long-term monitoring of mold

contamination and human health in New Orleans and other areas

flooded by Hurricane Katrina. Natural disasters like Hurricane

Katrina provide natural laboratories for understanding how fungi

respond to disturbance and the subsequent impacts they have on human

health.

Create a Fungal Genomes Database

Researchers involved with fungi must focus efforts on developing a

comprehensive fungal genomics database in order to make the vast

quantities of sequence data more available and to enable the field

to fully capitalize on the promise of genomics.

Report and Track Fungal Infections

Public health agencies should implement formal programs to report

cases, track disease progress, and design interventions in outbreaks

of fungal disease. The lack of reporting and tracking systems has

made it difficult to control the spread of fungal pathogens, because

good epidemiological data on the scope of infection is usually not

available.

Posted by Sharon Kramer

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