Do fungi kill three times as many people as malaria?
We investigate a claim that fungal infections are a much bigger killer than malaria, despite there being less focus on the risks posed.
The smash hit TV show and video game ‘The Last of Us’ has spawned lots of curiosity about how worried we should be about the relatively unknown world of fungi. A figure in a recent BBC online article stated that fungal infections kill around 1.7 million people a year, about three times as many as malaria. In this episode we look at the both the global fight against malaria and David Denning, Professor of Infectious Diseases and Global Health at the University of Manchester explains the risks posed by fungal infections globally.
Presenter: Charlotte McDonald,
Producers: Octavia Woodward and Jon Bithrey
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound Engineer: Nigel Appleton
Production Co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
(Cryptococcus neoformans fungus Credit: Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library/Getty images)
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Broadcasts
- Sat 11 Mar 202305:50GMTBBC World Service except Australasia
- Sat 11 Mar 202322:50GMTBBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Sun 12 Mar 202300:50GMTBBC World Service Online, UK DAB/Freeview, News Internet & Europe and the Middle East only
- Sun 12 Mar 202314:50GMTBBC World Service Australasia & News Internet only
- Sun 12 Mar 202322:50GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Mon 13 Mar 202300:50GMTBBC World Service Australasia, South Asia & East Asia only
- Mon 13 Mar 202310:50GMTBBC World Service
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