Improving awareness, diagnosis and management of invasive fungal infections in Ghana: establishment of the Ghana Medical Mycology Society

Abstract

Invasive fungal infections (IFI) and medical mycology receive little attention in Ghana. However, the present evolution of biomarker assays for IFI, offers an opportunity for an increased access to fungal laboratory testing in resource-limited settings, and probably make a case for availability of essential antifungal agents. Using surveys and personal communications, the state of medical mycology and IFI in Ghana were highlighted. Inadequate awareness and insufficient access to fungal diagnostics and therapeutics were identified as the key challenges, the establishment of the Ghana Medical Mycology Society was discussed, and recommendation made to improve the status quo.

A diverse spectrum of mycoses histologically diagnosed in Ghana: Insights from a 10-year retrospective study

“… 19 , 20 This is extremely important in the Ghanaian clinical setting particularly considering the critical role of histopathology in aiding diagnosis and in most instances the commonly available means of diagnosis. 4 Despite the common use of molecular methods on formalin-fixed-paraffin-embedded to aid species-level identification in many clinical mycology laboratories, the methodology or procedures of available assays are not extensively standardized and not available in many African settings. 21–25 …”

“…Furthermore, a diagnostic laboratory gap analysis study in Ghana reveals inadequate capacity and established that most laboratory diagnoses of mycoses are based on histopathology findings due to the absence of fungal culture and direct microscopy methods and contemporary antigen–antibody and molecular tests. 3 , 4 Moreover, histopathology is a critical requirement in confirming proven cases of mycoses. Although, histopathology cannot reliably identify all fungi to genus or species level, it can confidently classify some fungi such as Mucorales, Coccidioides, Paracoccidioides, Sporothrix, Histoplasma , and Blastomyces at least to family or genus level due to characteristic features.…”

“… 5 Analysing laboratory data is a common method of evaluating the epidemiology of infectious diseases and for mycoses, reviewing histopathology data is crucial, particularly in many African settings such as Ghana. 3 , 4 , 6 , 7 A review of histopathology reports has been previously used to evaluate the epidemiological parameters including prevalence and trends of single or spectrum of mycoses in some African countries such as Nigeria, 8–10 Togo, 11 , 12 and recently Uganda. 13 The aim of this study was to evaluate the spectrum of histologically diagnosed mycoses in Ghana.…”