ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Over the past decades, the incidence and diversity of fungal infections has grown in association with an increasing number of immunocompromised patients. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, technological improvements in the fields of solid organ transplantation medicine, stem cell transplantation, neonatology, coupled with the advent of new immunosuppressive drugs have collectively attributed to an increase in the incidence of systemic fungal infections including those caused by Candida, Aspergillus, Cryptococcus, Coccidioides, Pneumocystis, and Zygomycetes species. More recently, other species have begun to rival Candida albicans as major causative agents of fungal disease. For example, fluconazole-resistant non-albicans Candida species such as C. glabrata are now more prevalent in some hospitals (1,2). Although Aspergillus species remain the most common causes of mold infections in humans, other molds such as Scedosporium, Fusarium, Rhizopus, and Mucor species are now increasingly responsible for superficial and systemic mycoses (3,4).
