Health care-acquired aspergillosis and air conditioning systems.

摘要

Aspergillus species (Fig. 1) are conidia-forming fungi that are responsible for a wide spectrum of human illnesses. About 19 species of Aspergillus have been documented as agents of human disease, but the majority of infections are caused by Aspergillus fumigates (Fresenius, 1850), Aspergillus flavus (Link, 1809), Aspergillus niger (Van Tieghem, 1867), and Aspergillus terreus (Thorn, 1918) [1,2]. Clinical syndromes and diseases associated to Aspergillus spp. can be: "cutaneous" (primary skin and burn-wound infections, especially in neonates and children); "hypersensity" (allergic bronchopulmonary aspergil-losis); "acute invasive" (pneumonia, ulcerative tracheo-bronchitis, osteomyelitis,..);"chronic invasive" (chronic pneumonitis) [3-5].