MONILIASIS COMPLICATING ANTIBIOTIC THERAPY

Abstract

THE INCREASED incidence of local and systemic moniliasis since 1946 is evidenced by the frequency of published reports during the past seven and one-half years. A number of investigators have implied that the antibiotic drugs are causative agents in the genesis of these mycotic infections. Textbooks on bacteriology¹and recent publications generally accept Candida albicans as a common inhabitant of the skin, gastrointestinal tract, oral cavity, and the vagina. Zimmerman,²Harris,³and others^*state that the clinical manifestations of moniliasis which occur complicating antibiotic therapy are due to the destruction of the normal flora of the body, thereby removing the inhibiting effect of these organisms which compete with the co-existing C. albicans for nutritive substances in the same substrate. Leitner⁷and Harris³agree that alteration in vitamin biosynthesis may be a factor in lowering the resistance to the Candida, and they claim success