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An estimate of the burden of serious fungal diseases in Greece

European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases volume 35, pages 1115–1120 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Data on the epidemiology of serious fungal infections in Greece are scarce. Our aim was to calculate the burden of serious fungal diseases in Greece. A thorough literature search for papers reporting epidemiological data on serious fungal diseases in Greece was performed. Where no Greek data existed, we used a structured set of assumptions to estimate fungal disease burden, based on specific high-risk populations. Of the 10.8 million population, 85.5 % are adults and 27 % are over 60 years of age. The annual fungal disease estimates are as follows: 142,337 Greek women get recurrent vaginal thrush (2,632 cases/100,000 females); there are 889 cases of esophageal candidiasis (8.2 cases/100,000); annual incidence of Pneumocystis pneumonia is 112 cases; chronic pulmonary aspergillosis prevalence is 386 cases; there are 20,843 patients with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and 27,744 with severe asthma with fungal sensitization; candidaemia incidence is 541 cases (5.0/100,000); there are 81 cases of Candida peritonitis; invasive aspergillosis occurs in 1,125 patients. According to our calculations, 194,067 individuals (1.79 cases/100,000) in Greece suffer from serious fungal diseases each year. This is the first attempt to determine the burden of fungal diseases in Greece, and provides a crude estimate on its impact on public health.

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Affiliations

  1. The National Aspergillosis Centre, University Hospital of South Manchester, The University of Manchester and Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, UK

    M. N. Gamaletsou & D. W. Denning

  2. Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory, 4th Dept. of Internal Medicine, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    M. Drogari-Apiranthitou

  3. Infectious Diseases Unit, Pathophysiology Department, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Mikras Asias 75, Athens, 11527, Greece

    M. N. Gamaletsou & N. V. Sipsas

Authors
  1. M. N. Gamaletsou
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  2. M. Drogari-Apiranthitou
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  3. D. W. Denning
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  4. N. V. Sipsas
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Correspondence to N. V. Sipsas.

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Funding

This work was partly supported by the Special Account for Research Grants (ELKE) of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens [grant number 70/3/11724].

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest related to this research.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Maria N. Gamaletsou and Nikolaos V. Sipsas, in association with the LIFE program at www.LIFE-worldwide.org

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Gamaletsou, M.N., Drogari-Apiranthitou, M., Denning, D.W. et al. An estimate of the burden of serious fungal diseases in Greece. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 35, 1115–1120 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-016-2642-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-016-2642-8

  • Fungal diseases
  • Burden
  • Epidemiology
  • Greece