Current management of fungal enteritis.

Fungal infections of the gastrointestinal tract have risen to higher levels of prevalence in the past decade. Major factors accounting for this increase are social changes, such as the increased ease and frequency of travel, which exposes the individual to environmental conditions that may result in fungal infection; increasing use of antibiotic and hormonal medications by otherwise healthy persons; and improved therapy for other diseases, such as polychemotherapy of cancer with its immunosuppressive effects. Both noninvasive and invasive fungal disease of the intestinal tract in otherwise healthy individuals can be successfully treated. The invasive fungal infections in patients with severe prior underlying disease are often first diagnosed postmortem, but improvement in serologic techniques now offers a possibility of earlier diagnosis and therapeutic intervention.