The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and the European Respiratory Society have published the world's first guidelines for physicians and laboratories on chronic lung infections. They appear in the European Respiratory Journal.
Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis kills about 80 percent of those suffering from it over five years unless it is treated with long-term antifungals. The European Respiratory Society estimates that 3 million people worldwide have CPA. The infection is particularly difficult to manage and the societies expect these clinical guidelines to be a helpful resource for those treating affected patients.
"This is the first guideline on chronic pulmonary aspergillosis worldwide," Andrew Ullman, a professor at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzberg and chairman of the ESCMID's fungal infection study group, said in a statement. "It is the result of another joint effort of ESCMID and ERS experts who, in a truly interdisciplinary collaboration, prepared and published guidance for colleagues on a group of complex diseases that is difficult to manage. Aspergillosis is more than chronic lung infection and a larger document addressing all aspects of aspergillosis infections is under preparation by EFISG."