Infections Occurring during Chemotherapy

Abstract

THE administration of an effective antibiotic agent to a patient with an infectious disease, in addition to eliminating the causative organisms, produces a profound alteration in the composition of the bacterial population that normally inhabits certain tissues and organs. This by-product of chemotherapy is frequently of no clinical consequence, but on occasion is responsible for the superimposition of a serious infection on the one for which treatment was initially instituted. Although superinfection of this type has been observed by a number of investigators, it has always been considered to be an uncommon and even rare phenomenon, and very little is . . .