Invasive Fungal Diseases: What the Healthcare Professional Needs to Know

Combat mycosis to improve patient care and outcomes

From candidiasis to athlete’s foot, over one billion people experience fungal infections every year (CDC). Though thousands of fungal species exist, only a few hundred are known to cause infections or diseases in humans.

As a healthcare provider, knowing the basics of these fungal pathogens and their impact on human health is essential for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment.

This three-week, clinically-focused course from the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) will equip you with the foundational knowledge to spot, treat, manage, and prevent invasive fungal infections.

Understand different types of invasive fungal infections and diseases (IFDs)

You’ll begin this course by learning some of the common IFDs found globally. You’ll learn to recognise how each of these presents themselves and how to spot early signs in patients.

For practical application, you’ll work through four case studies covering four different IFDs – candidiasis, aspergillosis, Pneumocystis pneumonia and cryptococcal meningitis.

Diagnose and treat fungal infections

Once familiar with these infectious diseases, you’ll then focus on their diagnosis and treatment.

During this week, you’ll review the systemic antifungal treatments commonly used in clinical practice and learn about emerging antifungal agents, patient management, and dealing with treatment-related complications.

Manage antifungal resistance and stewardship

Finally, you’ll focus on essential aspects of managing fungal infections, including when therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is required and how to interpret antifungal susceptibility testing.

You’ll also explore the challenges of antifungal resistance and gain strategies for applying stewardship to optimise treatment practices and reduce resistance.

This course is for healthcare professionals, microbiologists, and anyone interested in diagnosing, treating, and managing fungal infections.

This course is for healthcare professionals, microbiologists, and anyone interested in diagnosing, treating, and managing fungal infections.

• Demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles of medical mycology in the context of common invasive fungal diseases (IFDs) and clinical practice
• Describe common clinical presentations of IFD of global clinical relevance, including risk factors
• Apply appropriate diagnostic tests for IFD to common clinical situations to optimise diagnosis and management and minimise inappropriate antifungal testing and prescribing
• Demonstrate an understanding of what is meant by the diagnostic terms ‘possible’, ‘probable’ and ‘proven’ IFD, and invasive fungal infection (IFI), and the relevance to and implications for clinical and research practice
• Assess current and future treatment options for common IFDs in order to choose the correct drug for the IFD being managed with awareness of potential adverse effects
• Describe the principles of empiric and diagnostic-driven (pre-emptive) approaches to managing IFD
• Summarise the required therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and other aspects of patient and therapy monitoring during the treatment of IFD
• Apply the principles of diagnostic and antifungal stewardship to clinical practice and within your facility
• Describe the role of antifungal and resistance surveillance, including antifungal susceptibility results, in order to optimise antifungal prescribing at patient and facility levels