The advent of antifungal and immunosuppressive therapies: 1950 to 1969

Abstract

Drastic changes were needed in medical mycology by the end of 1949, because the mortality rate for patients having invasive mycoses ranged between 50 and 100%, depending on the severity of the disease. The 1950s experienced the discovery of nystatin, the first active antifungal drug to be used in humans, followed by the development of stilbamidine and, more importantly, amphotericin B. John Fisher and John Perfect stated that although the azoles have been important new antifungal agents, the use of amphotericin B opened the field of antifungal therapy and remains the gold standard (J. Perfect; J. Fisher, questionnaires). The development of antifungal agents is ranked as the second most important event for the development of medical mycology in the United States (15 to 24.7% responses to the questionnaire, Tables 3 and 4, Appendix A), because it stimulated an intense interest among both the medical and pharmaceutical communities, enhanced public awareness, and legitimized the discipline as a distinctive field in medicine. Meanwhile, royalties from the sale of nystatin provided much needed financial support for training and research distributed through the Brown-Hazen Committee.