Journal article
Rare and emerging opportunistic fungal pathogens: Concern for resistance beyond Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus
Journal of clinical microbiology, Vol.42(10), pp.4419-4431
2004
DOI: 10.1128/JCM.42.10.4419-4431.2004
PMCID: PMC522363
PMID: 15472288
Abstract
The frequency of invasive mycoses due to opportunistic fungal pathogens has increased significantly over the past two decades (35, 74, 83, 88, 89, 101, 106). This increase in infections is associated with excessive morbidity and mortality (33, 50, 108) and is directly related to increasing patient populations at risk for the development of serious fungal infections, which includes individuals undergoing solid-organ transplantation, blood and marrow transplantation (BMT), and major surgery and those with AIDS, neoplastic disease, immunosuppressive therapy, advanced age, and premature birth (5, 35, 89, 106). Serious life-threatening infections are being reported with an ever increasing array of pathogens, including the well-known opportunists Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Aspergillus fumigatus (35, 63, 88). New and emerging fungal pathogens include species of Candida and Aspergillus other than C. albicans and A. fumigatus: opportunistic yeast-like fungi such as Trichosporon spp., Rhodotorula spp., and Geotrichum capitatum (Blastoschizomyces capitatus); the zygomycetes; hyaline molds, such as Fusarium, Acremonium, Scedosporium, Paecilomyces, and Trichoderma species; and a wide variety of dematiaceous fungi (Table (Table1)1) (6, 57, 71, 83, 90, 94, 106, 113). The field of medical mycology has become an extremely challenging study of infections caused by a wide and taxonomically diverse array of opportunistic fungi. The message to both clinicians and clinical microbiologists is that there are no uniformly nonpathogenic fungi: any fungus can cause a lethal infection in a sufficiently immunocompromised host and should never be dismissed out of hand as a contaminant.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Rare and emerging opportunistic fungal pathogens: Concern for resistance beyond Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus
- Creators
- M. A PfallerD. J Diekema
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of clinical microbiology, Vol.42(10), pp.4419-4431
- DOI
- 10.1128/JCM.42.10.4419-4431.2004
- PMID
- 15472288
- PMCID
- PMC522363
- NLM abbreviation
- J Clin Microbiol
- ISSN
- 0095-1137
- eISSN
- 1098-660X
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2004
- Academic Unit
- Infectious Diseases; Epidemiology; Pathology; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9983986368102771
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