IDENTIFYING AND TREATING COMMON AND UNCOMMON INFECTIONS IN THE PATIENT WITH DIABETES

Patients with diabetes represent a unique group of individuals who app ear more prone than others to developing infections. Several mechanism s have been proposed to explain the association between diabetes and i nfections. However few conclusive studies exist and considerable debat e continues regarding evidence for this predisposition. Despite this l ack of documented proof, many health care practioners acknowledge that a number of infections are overrepresented in patients with diabetes. Some of these infections appear to occur exclusively in patients with diabetes, especially patients who are poorly controlled. The presenti ng clinical features, causative organisms, and preferred treatment app roaches will be discussed in this article for a variety of common and uncommon infections observed in patients with diabetes. In addition, t he proposed predisposing factors will be addressed briefly.