Clinical Problems Relating to the Management of Infections With Antibiotics

Any physician who was responsible for patients with bacterial infections prior to the introduction of the sulfonamides and the antibiotics can readily appreciate the advantages that these therapeutic agents have brought about in the management of infectious diseases. One could dwell at length on the change in the clinical pattern that has resulted from modern antibiotic therapy in each of several infectious diseases. Consider the natural course of untreated hemolytic streptococcic septicemia, with its previous mortality of over 75% as compared to that of less than 10% existing today because of these advances in treatment. Gonorrhea can be successfully treated overnight, and no longer are hospital beds filled with patients having debilitating and chronic complications resulting from this venereal disease. Some of the most remarkable therapeutic triumphs involve patients with such diseases as subacute bacterial endocarditis or pneumococcic meningitis, in which recovery of an untreated patient is extremely rare. Although