title: What are fungal infections?
abstract: Yeasts and moulds now rank amongst the 10 most frequently isolated pathogens in febrile patients with an impaired immune system. Fungi are mainly opportunistic pathogens that only invade the body if a severely weakened natural defense permits them to do so. Most factors facilitating an invasive fungal infection are unavoidable because they are directly connected to the underlying diseases as well as to their treatment.Modern aggressive treatment modalities jeopardize the defense mechanisms to an extent that even fungi with a low virulence may enter the body.
authors.affiliation: University Medical Center St Radboud. The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ben E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: de Pauw