RT Book, Section A1 Levinson, Warren A1 Chin-Hong, Peter A1 Joyce, Elizabeth A. A1 Nussbaum, Jesse A1 Schwartz, Brian SR Print(0) ID 1190865634 T1 Gastrointestinal Tract Infections T2 Review of Medical Microbiology & Immunology: A Guide to Clinical Infectious Diseases, 17e YR 2022 FD 2022 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9781264267088 LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1190865634 RD 2024/04/25 AB Infections with a variety of agents can occur in any part of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract from the mouth to the anal canal. Infections can range in severity from self-limited to life-threatening, particularly if infection spreads from the gut to other parts of the body. Infections are typically caused by the ingestion of exogenous pathogens in sufficient quantities to evade host defenses and then cause disease by multiplication, toxin production, or invasion through the GI mucosa to reach the bloodstream and other tissues. In other cases, members of the normal flora of the GI tract can cause disease, particularly when the gut microbiome is disrupted.