Clinical Challenges of Emerging and Re-Emerging Yeast Infections in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

During the geological eras, some fungi, through adaptation and/or environmental/ecological pressure, interacted directly and indirectly with humans, through occasionally harmful interaction interdependent on the individual’s immunological condition. Infections caused by yeasts are underreported, subjugated, and underdiagnosed, and treatment is restricted to a few drugs, even after the significant progress of medicine and pharmacology. In the last centuries, antagonistically, there has been an exponential increase of immunocompromised individuals due to the use of immunosuppressive drugs such as corticosteroids, increased cases of transplants, chemotherapeutics, autoimmune diseases, neoplasms, and, more recently, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This review aims to survey emerging and re-emerging yeast infections in the current clinical context. Currently, there is an immense clinical challenge for the rapid and correct diagnosis and treatment of systemic mycoses caused by yeasts due to the terrible increase in cases in the current context of COVID-19.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• fungal co-infection
• immunomodulation