The Medical journal of Australia
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Mucormycosis (or zygomycosis) is an opportunistic fungal infection which usually is seen in patients who are immunosuppressed or who have diabetes. It is uncommon in healthy persons and also is uncommon in Australia. We report a case of a 45-year-old, otherwise-healthy man with an indolent lung infection that was caused by Absidia corymbifera, who was cured by a combination of surgical and medical therapy.
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Twelve patients with documented, progressive hairy-cell leukaemia were treated with human lymphoblastoid interferon-alpha. All patients initially received a three-month course of interferon-alpha (3 x 10(6) U each day) which resulted in two complete remissions and 10 partial remissions. All eight patients who were dependent upon packed red-cell transfusions became independent of them and the three patients with the most severe, pretreatment pancytopenia also became independent of platelet transfusions. ⋯ Moderate reactions that required a temporary reduction in the dose of interferon-alpha were seen in three patients. Ten patients subsequently received maintenance therapy with interferon-alpha (3 x 10(6) U, three times a week). A haematological improvement continued to be seen in all patients, and the results, with a minimum of one year of follow-up, are presented.