The war on superbugs, though not the longest conflict in human history, is certainly unique in its seemingly paradoxical scale — a global war in the truest sense of the phrase being fought on a microscopic scale. 

And while much of the attention in this war has been fixed on antimicrobial resistance, infectious diseases experts are warning of a front that can no longer be ignored — treatment-resistant fungi. 

The WHO’s Fungal Priority Pathogens List, published in October, lists 19 disease-causing fungi that require urgent attention, including “critical priority” pathogens that pose the greatest threat to public health.

The WHO team behind the report, including 30 researchers from the University of Sydney and the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID), screened over 6000 papers and consulted with hundreds of international mycology experts.