Antifungal resistance monitoring, be aware and be prepared! 

The first commercially-available antibiotics, the sulphonamides, were discovered through a trial-and-error approach screening various coal-tar dyes and serendipity played a major role in the discovery of penicillin in the late 1920s. Since then, strategies to discover new antimicrobials have significantly diversified, although there have been few truly novel breakthroughs in recent decades. Research has also led to the development of new anti-viral drugs for the treatment of previously impossible to treat or undiscovered viruses and rapidly emerging diseases such as AIDS and COVID-19, amongst others. Similarly, antifungal agents (also known as antimycotics) have emerged as important tools to combat infection, especially for immunocompromised patients.

This Viewpoint was originally published on the REVIVE website revive.gardp.org, an activity of the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP).