Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential risks posed by treatment resistant fungal infections.

Misuse and overuse of antimicrobials, such as fungal agents, is a factor in the development of drug-resistant pathogens. NHS England’s national pharmacy and prescribing clinical lead is supported by seven regional antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) leads. These AMS leads collaborate with regional National Health Service stakeholders and partner organisations, including infection prevention and control, patient safety, diagnostics and sepsis teams, the Department, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Health Education England and the Care Quality Commission, to contribute to multi-professional endeavours to mitigate the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

NHS England’s AMR diagnostics team advise that high-level research has been undertaken to understand the need for optimal fungal diagnostics and resistance testing. This has highlighted opportunities for improvement in data collection regarding the use of diagnostics, surveillance and consistent access to diagnostics.

The UKHSA reports on antifungal resistance against systemic antifungals utilised in the treatment of candidaemia, in the English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance report. Resistance to the key antifungals, amphotericin B, caspofungin and fluconazole, appears to have been decreasing in all Candida species. Fluconazole resistance decreased from 8.2% of Candida blood isolates tested in 2016 to 3.2% in 2020. Resistance to amphotericin B and caspofungin decreased slightly from 2016 to 2020, by 1.3% to 1.1%, and 3.4% to 3.3% respectively.