Der Internist
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Invasive fungal infections have gained importance in many areas of clinical medicine and represent a growing diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for clinicians. During the last decade, several new antifungals were introduced into routine therapy: two second-generation triazoles and the new class of echinocandins. ⋯ Consequently, they were integrated in recent therapeutic guidelines, often replacing former standard drugs as first-line options. The echinocandins (anidulafungin, caspofungin, micafungin) primarily have gained a central role in the treatment of invasive Candida infections, while the novel triazoles voriconazole and posaconazole established themselves as the current mainstays in therapy and prophylaxis of invasive fungal infections, particularly aspergillosis, in hemato-oncologic high-risk patients.
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Influenza infections have important socio-economic consequences. Risk groups identified so far include small children and elderly adults with comorbidities. ⋯ For the latter other at risk groups were affected and a different clinical course has been documented. The focus of this article is to give an overview on the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, diagnosis and therapy of influenza infections.