Professor David Denning
“It's exciting that research taking place at UHSM can change people's lives.”
“Around 60% of those treated benefited from the treatment so we believe this could really help thousands of people suffering from severe asthma in the UK. It's exciting that research taking place at UHSM can change people's lives.”
There is a huge range of research being undertaken at our hospital at any one time. One of these studies was into the link between asthma and antifungal medication, led by professor David Denning.
There are up to 150,000 people suffering from severe asthma in the UK. From the research we discovered that they could benefit from taking antifungal medication already available from pharmacists - the pills used to treat everyday fungal infections greatly improved the symptoms of asthma in those patients that had an allergic reaction to one or more fungi.
We carried a study using patients with a positive skin or blood test for fungal allergy. Severe asthma affects 5-10% of adult astmatics and probably 25-50% of these showed allergy to one or more fungi.
Around 60% of those treated benefited from the treatment, the study indicates that oral antifungal therapy is worth trying in some difficult to treat patients.