Hospital sources of Aspergillus species: New routes of transmission?

Opportunistic invasive fungal infections, in particular due to Aspergillus fumigatus, are an increasing problem in hospitalized, immunocompromised patients [1-3]. Patients at risk are those with hematologic malignancies [4,5], bone marrow or solid organ transplant recipients [6,7], patients with chronic granulomatous disease [8] and AIDS patients [9]. These patient groups have in common severe immunosuppression resulting from both granulocytopenia [10] and compromised cell-mediated immunity. The incidence as well as the mortality of invasive aspergillosis primarily depends on host factors and the timely Dirección para correspondencia: Dr. Adilia Warris UMC St. Radboud Department of Pediatrics, 435 P.O. Box 9101 6500 HB Nijmegen The Netherlands Tel.: +31 24 361 4430 Fax: +31 24 361 6428 E-mail: [email protected]