Conflict of interest: D.W. Denning and family hold founder shares in F2G Ltd, a University of Manchester spin-out antifungal discovery company; D.W. Denning acts or has recently acted as a consultant to Scynexis, Pulmatrix, Pulmocide, Zambon, iCo Therapeutics, Mayne Pharma, Biosergen, and Fujifilm; and has been paid for talks on behalf of Hikma, Gilead, Merck, Mylan and Pfizer; D.W. Denning is a longstanding member of the Infectious Disease Society of America Aspergillosis Guidelines group, the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Aspergillosis Guidelines group.