Molecular Diagnosis of Fungal Diseases From Clinical Samples & Medical Mycology Lab Manual

Rapid New Methods for Pathogenic Fungi

The field of diagnostic Mycology improved which once depended on specialist mycologists for identification with morphological diagnostic methods. The emergence of practical and effective molecular methods, and antigen tests result in rapid identification of pathogenic fungi. Recently the emergence of a significant number of fungal infections especially after the COVID-19 epidemic that shook the world.

Researchers now targeting molecular methods like mutations associated with phenotype resistance and the application of next-generation molecular sequencing for the rapid identification of pathogens but still, it takes time to replace morphological identifications of fungi because of the diversity of fungal genotypes. Here we described some of the newest methods for rapid diagnosis of pathogenic fungi. Fungal infections have usually been overlooked by clinicians in the past but the emergence of a large number of immune-compromised patients and the recent pandemic of COVID-19 caused a rise in invasive fungal diseases and made a life-threatening problem for intensive care unit(ICU) patients. Not only these but a considerable number of patients with respiratory virus infection are considered at substantial risk of fungal infections. Recently, the release of commercially available assays for PCR-based diagnosis kits allowed non-specialists to identify fungi that help in patients' treatment quite earlier.