Update on invasive fungal infections: the last two years

Several important changes are taking place in the field of invasive fungal infections. The increasing incidence of invasive fungal infections as a result of progress in areas of medicine such as organ transplantation, cancer therapy or intensive-care medical technology has provided the impetus for a search for a new and more favorable scenario. In addition, pharmaceutical companies have developed new, well-tolerated and more effective broad-spectrum antifungal agents. Therefore, during the last few years, several articles on invasive fungal infections have been published. This review focuses on the new insights in the literature on fungal infections during 2004 and 2005. Three areas of interest have been identified: (i) epidemiology and risk factors, (ii) new diagnostic procedures, and (iii) prevention and treatment. A review of the English-language and Spanish-language literature on invasive fungal infections has been made, and those articles considered essential reading have been reviewed and discussed in order to highlight their original aspects.