Recently, it has been reported that the prevalence of fungal infection is increasing worldwide and more than one million people die from fungal infections every year, suggesting that early diagnosis and treatment methods need to be improved. It is also known that mortality from invasive fungal infections is 22.4%, showing about 50% for blood cancer patients, and 87% for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients. Therefore, establishing an infrastructure for research on fungal infections is considered necessary. In order to secure various fungal resources nationwide, collection system need to include resources from major domestic hospitals that have a variety of immunosuppressed patients. Additionally collection hospitals are required to identify fungi using standardized testing methods, select resources according to selection criteria, and obtain clinical and epidemiological information on patients and establish them as a database.
In accordance with the law on collection and management and utilization of pathogen resources that became newly effective on February 4, 2017, establishing a specialized bank as research infrastructure to collect, manage, and distribute pathogenic fungi resources at national level should be accelerated. The bank is expected to play pivotal roles in both the improvement of diagnosis and treatment for fungal infections and the development of related health industries.
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