Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Although HIV/AIDS has been anything but neglected over the last decade, opportunistic infections (OIs) are increasingly overlooked as large-scale donors shift their focus from acute care to prevention and earlier antiretroviral treatment (ART) initiation.Of these OIs, cryptococcal meningitis, a deadly invasive fungal infection, continues to affect hundreds of thousands of HIV patients with advanced disease each year and is responsible for an estimated 15%-20% of all AIDS-related deaths [1,2].Yet cryptococcal meningitis ranks amongst the most poorly funded "neglected" diseases in the world, receiving 0.2% of available relevant research and development (R&D) funding, according to Policy Cures' 2016 Global Funding of Innovation for Neglected Diseases (G-Finder) Report [3,4].Although cryptococcal meningitis is not formally recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases (PLOS NTDs) as a neglected tropical disease (NTD), it is listed in the G-Finder report, as it disproportionately affects people in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), with market failure evident for existing essential antifungal medicines and an urgent need for new, effective, and less toxic medicines.PLOS NTDs defines NTDs as a "group of poverty-promoting chronic infectious diseases, which primarily occur in rural areas and poor urban areas of LMICs" [5] and according to the WHO, NTDs are "a proxy for poverty and disadvantage", have "an important impact on morbidity and mortality", and are relatively "neglected by research" [6].Although the greatest burden of cryptococcal disease is undoubtedly related to HIV, we demonstrate herein that cryptococcal meningitis meets both the WHO and PLOS NTDs definitions of an NTD,
Source: PLoS neglected tropical diseases
Authors: Síle F. Molloy, Tom Chiller, Gregory S. Greene, Jessica Burry, Nelesh P. Govender, Cecilia Kanyama, Sayoki Mfinanga, Sokoine Lesikari, Yacouba N. Mapoure, Charles Kouanfack, Victor Sini, Elvis Temfack, David R. Boulware, Francoise Dromer, David W. Denning, Jeremy Day, Neil R. H. Stone, Tihana Bicanic, Joseph N. Jarvis, Olivier Lortholary, Thomas S. Harrison, Shabbar Jaffar, Angela Loyse
Institutions: University of London, St George's, University of London, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Médecins Sans Frontières, University of Cape Town, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Central Hospital of Yaoundé, University of Douala, University of Minnesota, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Pasteur, University of Oxford, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Wellcome Trust, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,670
OpenAlex ID: W2727666014