Epidemiology of Fungal Infections: The Promise of Molecular Typing

As the incidence of invasive fungal disease-particularly nosocomial candidal infection-has increased significantly over the past two decades, molecular typing has become increasingly important for the development of rational infection-control measures and therapeutic strategies. Numerous molecular methods have been used to subtype Candida species, including restriction endonuclease analysis of genomic DNA, Southern hybridization analysis, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and polymerase chain reaction-based approaches. Increasingly, typing techniques are being applied to other fungal organisms as well. Although an ideal epidemiological typing technique applicable to a wide range of fungal pathogens is not yet available, several molecular-typing methods may permit rapid, simple, and sensitive discrimination of specific strains among the most clinically important species of fungi.