The burden of fungal infection on human health has risen significantly over the past several decades where in aggregate, the top invasive fungal infections are estimated to cause over a million deaths worldwide [1]. The significance of this problem has been increasingly appreciated and calls for action have been raised by researchers throughout the world [2]. The challenges to effectively tackling fungal infections are multifactorial and include the need for better diagnostics, new antifungal drugs, vaccines, and novel mechanistic insight on immune-mediated control of infection. Several recent excellent reviews discuss our current understanding of pulmonary protection against fungal infections [3], the prospects for new therapeutics [4], and the importance of developing antifungal vaccines [5]. In this review, we focus our discussion to Aspergillus fumigatus (Af), and the critical role that monocytes play in control of this clinically important fungal pathogen.
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