[Mycoses. Pathogenicity and diagnosis of dermatophytes, yeasts and molds].

Human beings today living in high industrialized areas suffer more frequently from fungal diseases than before. This is due to the management in animal production, but also to the use of cosmetics and contraceptives, smoking cigarettes, wearing clothes of synthetic polymers and application of new drugs, like antibiotics, cytostatics, immunosuppressives and others, which favours the growth of certain fungi in and on the skin and inside the human body. Some mechanisms are known from the macroorganism which are able to protect man from fungal invasion. Effective in this way are the normal flora of the skin, gut and the mucous membranes, the enzymes digestive and the natural low pH of the healthy skin. The fungal growths are favoured when primary diseases of not-infectious genesis due to disorders in metabolism or endocrinium, vitamin deficiency, malabsorption, maldigestion, false and malnutrition, and diseases of the haemopoetic system exist. But also viral and bacterial infections stimulate the development of secondary fungal diseases. The pathogens belong to three groups, dermatophytes, yeasts and molds, which can be differentiated according to their behaviour in culture and in tissue.