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As many as 28% of hospitalized patients requiring mechanical ventilators to help them breathe (for more than 48 hours) will develop ventilator-associated pneumonia. Current therapy involves intravenous antibiotics, but new antibiotics that can be inhaled (and more directly treat the infection) are being developed.
Fatal fungal infections may be able to resist newer antifungal drugs. Globally, fungal infections are often fatal due to the lack of access to multiple antifungals, which may be required to be utilized in combination. Single antifungals may not be enough to stop a fungal infection from causing the death of a patient.
Stevens-Johnson syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis syndrome are life-threatening reactions that can result in death. Complications include permanent blindness, dry-eye syndrome, lung damage, photophobia, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, permanent loss of nail beds, scarring of mucous membranes, arthritis, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Many patients' pores scar shut, causing them to retain heat.
When intravenous medications are involved in adverse drug events, their harmful effects may occur more rapidly, and be more severe than errors with oral medications. This is due to the direct administration into the bloodstream.
The B-complex vitamins and vitamin C are not stored in the body and must be replaced each day.
![Development of an atherosclerotic plaque that progressively narrows the lumen of an artery to the po](https://biology-forums.com/gallery/47/medium_14755_10_09_12_7_23_55_8527254.jpeg)
![An angiogram that illustrates narrowing of the carotid artery (see arrow), the main pathway of blood ...](https://biology-forums.com/gallery/30/medium_548020_06_06_17_11_06_37_303621073.png)