Invasive Fungal infections (IFIs) should be considered a public health problem in Mexico and become a notifiable group of diseases according to a study by Dora Edith Corzo-León and colleagues.
The multicentre study, which reported the incidence rates of IFIs at 4 Mexican hospitals, describes both the economic cost associated with IFI therapy and the impact of additional factors such as acute kidney or liver damage both. These co-morbidities resulted in higher mortality rates, with the former increasing antifungal therapy costs 4.3 fold. The total economic cost for all IFIs was estimated to be over $233 million.
In addition, the authors report that their incidence estimate of 30,000 new cases of IFIs in one year in Mexico is higher than the number of new cases of Chikungunya, hemorrhagic Dengue and Zika virus infections, and therefore conclude that IFIs should become a notifiable group of diseases and be treated as a public health problem.