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Team:Goettingen/project overview/fungal infections
From 2014.igem.org
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<p>Opportunistic mycoses affect those patients with a compromised immune system, such as AIDS patients and patients taking immmuno-suppressants, particularly those patients that were intervened with a solid transplantation. The following interactive graphic is also an adaption of the information presented in Brown <i>et al</i>., (2012).</p><br /> | <p>Opportunistic mycoses affect those patients with a compromised immune system, such as AIDS patients and patients taking immmuno-suppressants, particularly those patients that were intervened with a solid transplantation. The following interactive graphic is also an adaption of the information presented in Brown <i>et al</i>., (2012).</p><br /> | ||
| - | <p>From top to bottom, the data on the upper-right corner is the following: 1) Disease name, 2) Organism, 3) | + | <p>From top to bottom, the data on the upper-right corner is the following:<b> 1) Disease name, 2) Organism, 3) Mortality rates (% in infected populations) and 4) estimated life threatening infections per year worldwide.</b></p><br /> |
<p><center><b>Hover your pointer over the colored circles to see the data</b></center></p><br /> | <p><center><b>Hover your pointer over the colored circles to see the data</b></center></p><br /> | ||
Revision as of 10:54, 21 September 2014
Project
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Background
Fungal infections
The most common fungal infections are superficial skin, nails and mucosal infections, which are caused in most cases by fungi of the genus Candida. These infections are usually not life threatening and have such common manifestations as athlete's foot and vulvovaginal candidiasis.
Invasive fungal infections, on the other hand, have unacceptably high mortality rates. Patients with a compromised immune system -such as AIDS patients and post-transplantation patients taking immunosupresants- are at special risk as they don't have the usual barriers that prevent invasive infections in healthy individuals.
According to Brown, et al., (2012), more than 90% of the reported deaths caused by fungi are associated with species from four genera: Cryptococcus, Candida, Aspergillus and Pneumocystis, but epidemiological data for fungal infections is poor, as these infections are often misdiagnosed and there is a lack of accurate data from the developing world.
Endemic dimorphic mycoses
The following map is an adaptation of the information presented in Brown, et al., (2012), where the authors make some comments regarding the quality of that information:
1) The data is extrapolated from a few and geographically localized studies
2) accurate data is lacking from the developing world and the calculations may underestimate the true values of the presented statistics.
Opportunistic invasive mycoses
Opportunistic mycoses affect those patients with a compromised immune system, such as AIDS patients and patients taking immmuno-suppressants, particularly those patients that were intervened with a solid transplantation. The following interactive graphic is also an adaption of the information presented in Brown et al., (2012).
From top to bottom, the data on the upper-right corner is the following: 1) Disease name, 2) Organism, 3) Mortality rates (% in infected populations) and 4) estimated life threatening infections per year worldwide.
References
- 1. Brown et al., (2012), Hidden Killers: Human Fungal Infections, Sci Transl Med, Vol. 4, Issue 165.
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