Modern treatment of the systemic fungus diseases

The systemic fungus diseases are not common, and it is difficult to amass a significant number of patients with anyone specific deep mycosis in order to evaluate clinically any new chemotherapeutic agent. This review has attempted to assemble and summarize the present-day knowledge of the newer antifungal agents. Individual consideration is given to the systemic fungus diseases: coccidioidomycosis, histoplasmosis, North American blastomycosis, South American blastomycosis, cryptococcosis, actinomycosis, nocardiosis, sporotrichosis, candidiasis, aspergillosis, and mucormycosis. Other contaminant fungi, such as species of Penicillium and Geotrichum, which at times assume a pathogenic role and cause disease, are not given individual consideration in this paper. Since amphotericin B has given the most encouraging results of all the antifungal agents, greater attention is devoted to this antibiotic in this review.