title: Infectious complications of alcoholism.
abstract: Physicians must remain attuned to the increased incidence of infectious complications in alcoholics as compared with the general population. Prompt diagnosis and vigorous early treatment of pneumonia and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis may reverse and otherwise grave prognosis. Althought many mechanisms of host defenses seem affected by alcohol ingestion, the precise mechanisms of increased bacterial susceptibility in alcoholism remain unclear.
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications* / Q000276:immunology; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D010538:Peritonitis / Q000150:complications; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000150:complications; D018805:Sepsis / Q000150:complications; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000150:complications