Nearly 1.5 million environmental fungal species out of which 8000 plant pathogens and 300 human pathogens respectively but such scenarios have changed rapidly in recent years. Prolonged steroid use, recent neutropenia, diabetes mellitus, cancer (AML), and rheumatologic conditions are the principal predisposing factors to fungal infections and they are increasing day by day. The responsibility for national/ international surveillance like fungal infection rate, antifungal resistance surveillance, and for outbreak investigation are mandatory to control fungal pathogens. Allylamine-resistant dermatophytes causing tinea infections are resistant to multiple antifungal drugs and they are increasing in Asian countries. Similarly, Candida auris is a newly emerging global pathogen that is antifungal resistant and rapidly spread in healthcare facilities with high mortality. Laboratory diagnosis of this etiological agent is not completed in a simple setup Mycology Laboratory and untrained mycologist. The selective antifungal drug for the treatment of this novel species cannot be assayed by in vitro antifungal susceptibility
testing (AFST) due to the non-availability of reliable methodology and antifungal breakpoints. Thus, the outcome of dealing with this emerging fungal disease is very poor. 14.3 % of the global population i.e estimated 985 million suffer from superficial fungal infections (the fourth most prevalent chronic disease) responsible for considerable morbidity while nearly 830 million people suffer from serious fungal infections, and 1.6 million die yearly. The emergence of antifungal resistance in fungal etiological agents like Candida, Aspergillus, and dermatophytes has given a severe challenge in managing these infections clinicians. Due to the increasing importance of clinically relevant fungi, the WHO has included antifungal resistance surveillance under their GLASS (Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System). To make Medical/Clinical Mycology easier, the chapter contains numerous information platform links.
Morphology of medically important fungi http://labmed.ucsf.edu/education/residency/fung_morph/launchpage.html
Mycology image gallery – https://eportal.mountsinai.ca/Microbiology//mig/index.shtml
Atlas of Clinical Fungi http://www.clinicalfungi.org/