[Mycologic surveillance of the environment for preventive invasive aspergillosis. Proposals for standardization of the methodologies and implementation].

A MAJOR RISK: The infection of immunodepressed patients by Aspergillus-type fungi increases morbidity and mortality, particularly in hematology units or during solid organ transplantation. Although present diagnostic means benefit from the progress over the last years, they remain limited and chemoprophylaxis protocols have still not demonstrated significant efficacy. THE NEED FOR RECOMMENDATIONS: Today, the handling of environmental risks is the only strategy that has proved its efficacy and usefulness.

Comparative performance of impactor air samplers for quantification of fungal contamination.

The aim of this study was to assess the performance of different impactor air samplers for fungal spore collection in the hospital environment. Four recent impactor air samplers were selected: Samplair (AES, Combourg, France); Air Test Omega (LCB, France); Air Samplair Mas-100 (Merck, France); and BioImpactor 100-08 (AES). They were compared with one another at three different hospital sites with varying levels of contaminated air.

Efficacy of prevention by high-efficiency particulate air filtration or laminar airflow against Aspergillus airborne contamination during hospital renovation.

Objective: To evaluate efficacy of laminar airflow facilities plus high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration and HEPA filtration alone in preventing environmental Aspergillus contamination during hospital renovation. To show the usefulness of environmental surveillance to facilitate protection of patients at risk for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis.

Design: Prospective sampling of air and surfaces for Aspergillus conidia during 2-year period.

Molecular diagnosis and epidemiology of fungal infections.

A variety of methods are utilized for DNA strain subtyping of Candida spp. because no 'gold standard' exists. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) or restriction enzyme analysis (REA) are useful to determine the source of an outbreak, but more reproducible and discriminatory methods such as Southern hybridization and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) may be required.

Molecular typing of environmental and patient isolates of Aspergillus fumigatus from various hospital settings.

Fingerprinting of more than 700 clinical and environmental isolates of Aspergillus fumigatus from four differential hospital settings was undertaken with a dispersed repeated DNA sequence. The analysis of the environmental isolates showed that the airborne A. fumigatus population is extremely diverse, with 85% of the strains being represented as a single genotype isolated once.