Uncommon Yeasts and Molds Causing Human Disease
With advances in modern medicine, patients are now living with increasingly complex medical comorbidities, and often with increasingly fragile immunity. As a result, larger populations are susceptible to infections from once infrequently seen fungal opportunists. This article will review rarely encountered pathogenic fungi that should be familiar to the clinician and laboratory mycologist. These pathogens include the yeast-like fungi of the genera Malassezia, Rhodotorula, Saccharomyces, Saprochaete, and Trichosporon, as well as the molds loosely classified into the phaeohyphomycoses and hyalohyphomycoses. Finally, this article will address a newly defined genus of the dimorphic fungi, Emergomyces, which are increasingly recognized as a cause of disseminated disease, primarily in persons with HIV infection.
