ABSTRACT
Fungal infections have become increasingly important in the last few decades as advances in modern medicine prolong the lives of severely debilitated patients. A wide variety of hosts with compromised host defenses are at risk for these infections. These include HIV-infected, cancer, transplant, surgical and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients, and also newborn infants. Neutropenia, use of broad spectrum antibiotics, indwelling catheters, immunosuppression and disruption of mucosal barriers due to chemotherapy and radiotherapy constitute some of the main predisposing factors for these opportunistic infections.
