Most Americans unaware of major fungal diseases, survey finds
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Nearly 70% of adults in the United States have never heard of six major fungal diseases, according to results from a first-of-its-kind survey published in MMWR.
“Public awareness of fungal diseases is low, a concerning finding because these diseases are associated with substantial illness, death and economic cost, although their true burden remains largely unquantified,” Kaitlin Benedict, MPH, and colleagues from the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases wrote.
“Primary prevention of fungal diseases can be challenging, particularly for those acquired via inhalation from the natural environment,” they wrote. “Therefore, awareness is critical to help prevent severe disease, because early diagnosis and treatment can prevent incorrect treatment and improve outcomes.”
Benedict and colleagues reviewed answers from Porter Novelli’s Fall 2019 ConsumerStyles survey, a nationally representative online survey of 3,624 adults, to determine respondents’ awareness of six invasive fungal diseases: aspergillosis, Candida infection or candidiasis, coccidioidomycosis, Cryptococcus, blastomycosis and histoplasmosis.
General awareness varied by disease. The lowest level of patient recognition was for blastomycosis (4.1%), and the highest was for candidiasis (24.6%). More than two-thirds (68.9%) of the participants were not familiar with any of the infections included. Higher education status, increased number of prescription medications and female sex were associated with awareness.
According to the researchers, the study’s major limitations were its reliance on self-reported data, lack of information about health literacy, limited explanation of awareness of fungal diseases and a lack of information about risk factors like immunosuppression, environmental exposures and occupation. They said rectifying these limitations could “help public health and health care professionals develop targeted prevention messages to groups at high risk.”
“These results are the first estimates of nationwide public awareness of fungal diseases and serve as a baseline for future studies to assess knowledge gaps,” the authors wrote. “Continued educational efforts to improve awareness are needed.”
Perspective
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Cornelius (Neil) J. Clancy, MD
We are in an unprecedented era of fungal diseases. Stories of infections by the previously unrecognized yeast Candida auris and mold infections following hurricanes, steroid injections and contaminated hospital linen exposures have gotten prominent media exposure. Even as these dramatic stories have unfolded, three-quarters of U.S. women suffer vaginal yeast infections due to Candida, and surveys reveal widespread concern about environmental mold exposure. Therefore, it was striking that awareness of six major invasive fungal infections was so low in this national survey. Clearly, we in infectious diseases have failed to educate our fellow citizens about the importance of leading fungal infections, despite an inchoate public awareness of yeasts and molds as causes of illness. To me, this is a failure of scientific communication. Why does this matter? As COVID-19 has painfully taught, failure to communicate basic medical information to sizeable segments of society carries serious consequences. Failure to recognize common fungal infections compromises health and health care, promotes inappropriate antibiotic use and fuels medical quackery and mycologic pseudoscience about chronic candidiasis, sick buildings, healthy stool, etc. To counteract misinformation, we need to teach ourselves how to talk more effectively to the public. Training programs need to devote more attention to science communication.
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