New Delhi: Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) — a common fungal infection that claims 340,000 lives every year worldwide, can turn lethal for about 1 in three people with lung diseases, finds a study by researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the national capital. 

CPA, caused by exposure to airborne spores of the mould Aspergillus, causes gradual scarring of the lungs for months and years.

It is a debilitating condition that causes severe tiredness, weight loss, breathlessness, and coughing up blood. While exposure to Aspergillus is harmless to most people, it may affect those with lung damage.

The study, based on a major global review and published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, showed that around 32 per cent of people who have had prior damage from lung diseases will die after five years if they also get infected by CPA.

Nearly 15 per cent of people with CPA will die in the first year following other lung diseases.

AIIMS Delhi researchers Dr. Abinhav Sengupta and Dr. Animesh Ray examined the death rates in 8,778 patients described in the literature from all continents except Antarctica.

The international study including researchers from the University of Manchester, showed that CPA patients with prior tuberculosis (TB) had a lower overall 5-year mortality of 25 per cent.

However, they also found that patients with CPA end up being misdiagnosed as having TB, and then not treated with antifungal agents.

Treatment with antifungal drugs or surgery is key to improving symptoms and also reducing the risk of death, the researchers said.

Further, people older than 60, and those having interstitial lung disease, current cancer, and smoking-related lung disease carried worse outcomes, said the team.