Improving diagnosis and management of fungal infections in Vietnam

Sydney ID’s Dr Justin Beardsley is pleased to announce that he and colleagues from Hanoi Medical University and Duke were recently awarded a significant education grant by Pfizer to improve the diagnosis and management of fungal infections in Vietnam. Dr Tra My Nu Duong, a USyd post-doctoral researcher in his group, explains ‘we estimated that almost 2.5 million people are affected by serious fungal infections in Vietnam each year. We have also found evidence that anti-fungal drug-resistance is increasing. However, outside research laboratories like ours there is limited access to tests’.

Dr Dat Vu Quoc, a senior lecturer in infectious diseases at HMU, added ‘especially outside the major cities of Vietnam, access to lab tests for fungal infections is very difficult. Doctors may not consider fungal infection as a diagnosis, and even if they do  they may not be able to confirm their suspicion. This makes giving patients the treatment they need very challenging.’ He hopes that this funding from Pfizer will help to boost knowledge amongst Vietnamese doctors and improve access to appropriate and life-saving treatments for patients.

Justin concluded ‘myself and colleagues from NSW Health Pathology have been running mycology workshops in Vietnam for the last few years. This well-funded online platform will make a big difference to how many people we can reach and will raise the profile of fungal infections and their treatment well-beyond HCMC and Hanoi.’