A new study led by Imperial College London finds that drug-resistant mould is spreading from the environment and infecting susceptible people’s lungs.
A new study led by Imperial College London finds that drug-resistant mould is spreading from the environment and infecting susceptible people’s lungs.
The researchers found six cases of people infected with a drug-resistant form of a fungi called Aspergillus fumigatus that could be traced back to spores in the environment. Their findings use samples from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and are published in Nature Microbiology.
Aspergillus fumigatus is an environmental mould that can cause fungal lung disease. While people with healthy lungs clear inhaled spores, people with lung conditions or weakened immune systems sometimes cannot, meaning the spores may remain in the lungs causing an infection called aspergillosis. Aspergillosis affects 10-20 million people worldwide. The infection is usually treated with an antifungal drug but emerging resistance to these drugs has been reported.
This resistance has evolved because of the widespread agricultural use of azole fungicides, the researchers say. Azole drugs that work in a similar way are the first-line treatment for patients infected with the Aspergillus fumigatus mould, so the fungus’ exposure to azole fungicides in the environment means it is often in a drug-resistant form even before it even encounters the people it infects.
Read more at Imperial College London
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