Endotoxin and Bacteremia Due to Gram-Negative Organisms

Abstract

The impact of social progress and medical advances on the health problems of the nation is, perhaps, most clearly apparent in the area of bacterial infections. Although fatalities resulting from community-acquired infections, such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, have decreased strikingly, hospital-acquired infections have become increasingly important. An earlier Journal editorial labeled the staphylococcus as the new "Captain of the men of death."¹ Subsequently, for unexplained reasons, the frequency of staphylococcal infections diminished strikingly in the United States but not in Europe. This left no void, however, since gramnegative bacilli have become the most recent plague to visit patients within our . . .