{"id":85302,"date":"2026-09-22T18:38:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T13:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=85302"},"modified":"2026-09-22T18:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T13:09:07","slug":"antifungal-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/22-09-2026\/antifungal-resistance","title":{"rendered":"Growing Threat of Antifungal Resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Health, GS3\/ Science and Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A research on Candida auris demonstrates that resistance to antifungals can arise through gene mutation, gene duplication and compensatory mechanisms in the cell.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are Fungal Infections?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Fungal infections are<strong> diseases caused by pathogenic fungus <\/strong>that can damage the skin, nails, lungs, blood stream and other organs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dermatophytes <\/strong>are fungi that are common causes of skin, nail and hair infection, while yeasts such as Candida auris can cause severe systemic infection.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fungal infections are particularly hazardous in immunocompromised individuals because they can become invasive and life-threatening.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why is Candida auris a concern?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Candida auris is a developing <strong>multidrug-resistant yeast<\/strong> that causes bloodstream and other invasive infections, notably in health care settings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It was first identified in <strong>Japan in 2009 <\/strong>and has since been reported in several nations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In India, more than 90% of the clinical isolates of C. auris tested were resistant to <strong>azole antifungals such as fluconazole,<\/strong> and many were also resistant to <strong>polyenes.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why is Antifungal Resistance Increasing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Global Warming: <\/strong>Most fungi cannot normally survive well at the human body temperature, which limits their ability to infect humans.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Rising global temperatures favour heat-tolerant fungi that can gradually adapt to warmer conditions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Frequent or inappropriate use <\/strong>of antifungal medicines puts selection pressure on fungi, allowing resistant strains to survive and multiply.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Limited Diagnostic Facilities: <\/strong>Many healthcare facilities lack adequate capacity to identify fungal species and test their drug susceptibility.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As a result, infections may be treated with ineffective medicines, allowing resistant fungi to persist.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Limited Treatment Options:<\/strong> Unlike bacteria, fungi have fewer biological differences from human cells, making it difficult to develop drugs that selectively kill fungi without harming the patient.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Eagle Effect<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Eagle effect is the<strong> paradoxical phenomenon<\/strong> where some fungi, when exposed to a low concentration of an antifungal,<strong> survive or re-grow<\/strong> when exposed to a very high concentration.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In C. auris, this can occur because <strong>high drug concentrations activate compensatory pathways<\/strong> such as increased chitin synthesis.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Therefore, an increase in the amount of antifungal does <strong>not always ensure a larger therapeutic benefit.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are the challenges?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Many healthcare facilities lack adequate <strong>fungal diagnostic and identification infrastructure.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Conventional susceptibility testing may not fully capture unusual resistance mechanisms such as paradoxical growth.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Advanced genomic testing to identify resistance-associated mutations can be <strong>expensive and difficult to deploy routinely.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Limited availability of effective antifungal classes increases the risk of <strong>therapeutic failure.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Weak surveillance<\/strong> can delay the identification of emerging resistant fungal strains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Strengthen fungal surveillance: <\/strong>Establish integrated national surveillance systems for emerging and drug-resistant fungal pathogens.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Improve diagnostics:<\/strong> Expand access to fungal culture, antifungal susceptibility testing and genomic methods, particularly in tertiary hospitals.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>One Health approach:<\/strong> Antifungal resistance should be studied across human, animal and environmental ecosystems, particularly in the context of climate change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/why-scientists-are-rethinking-the-chemical-arms-race-against-fungi\/article71469433.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> A research on Candida auris demonstrates that resistance to antifungals can arise through gene mutation, gene duplication and compensatory mechanisms in the cell. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> What are Fungal Infections? <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Fungal infections are diseases caused by pathogenic fungus that can damage the skin, nails, lungs, blood stream and other organs. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Dermatophytes are fungi that are common causes of skin, nail and hair infection, while yeasts such as Candida auris can cause severe systemic infection. <\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/22-09-2026\/antifungal-resistance\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85302"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85305,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85302\/revisions\/85305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}