Resources for Medical Mycology on the World Wide Web

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Clinical Infectious Diseases 2005;40:437-450

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CID/journal/issues/v40n3/34774/34774

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SURFING THE WEB INVITED ARTICLE

Victor L. Yu, Section Editor

Resources for Medical Mycology on the World Wide Web

Karoll J. Cortez,1 s H. Groll,2 and J. Walsh1

1Immunocompromised Host Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, National

Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, land;

and 2Infectious Disease Research Program, Center for Bone Marrow

Transplantation and Department of Hematology/Oncology, University

Children's Hospital, Muenster, Germany

Searching the World Wide Web for information on medical mycology can

be challenging. We provide the reader with an organized overview of

the available resources on the Internet, including authoritative

sites from academic institutions, professional societies, government

agencies, and personal sites. This article reviews clinically

relevant Internet resource directories, comprehensive sites of

interest to clinicians, clinical trials in medical mycology,

clinically relevant Web sites devoted to specific fungal pathogens

and their infections, genomic resources in medical mycology, culture

collections, images of fungi on the World Wide Web, medical mycology

lecture and teaching materials, environmental health and safety

information, and a listing of Web sites of medical mycology

professional societies.

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Received 18 August 2004; accepted 19 August 2004;

electronically published 10 January 2005.

Reprints or correspondence: Dr. J. Walsh,

Immunocompromised Host Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, National

Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rm. 13N240, 10

Center Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892-1992

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The past 2 decades have witnessed an increasing number of

invasive fungal infections in association with a dramatic increase

in the population of severely immunocompromised patients. Many

clinical procedures and treatments, such as surgery, use of

catheters, injections, radiation, chemotherapy, antibiotic therapy,

and corticosteroid use, are risk factors for the development of life-

threatening fungal infections.

Mycologists estimate that there are 100,000 validly

characterized species of fungi, with at least as many species

waiting to be discovered. Of those described, 150 species are

recognized as pathogens of humans and animals. They cause a broad

spectrum of infections, ranging from systemic and potentially fatal

diseases to localized cutaneous, subcutaneous, or mucosal

infections. A few fungi can cause infections in patients with

apparently normal immune systems; other fungi primarily infect

immunocompromised hosts, causing opportunistic pathogens. With the

ever-increasing number of immunocompromised patients, the list of

opportunistic fungi becomes longer every year.

The prevention, control, and treatment of invasive fungal

infections, especially in the immunocompromised host