ABSTRACT
PATHOGENICITY OF ANAEROBIC BACTERIA Most anaerobic infections are pyogenic and arise from the normal flora of the skin, oropharynx, large intestine, or female genital tract. Such infections typically involve multiple species of bacteria, some strict anaerobes, some strict aerobes, and others that are facultative anaerobes (i.e., able to grow aerobically or anaerobically). The polymicrobial nature of infections involving anaerobic bacteria is apparent in infections of the respiratory tract, abdomen, pelvis, and soft tissue, where the number of isolates in an infectious site varies between two and five.1-3 The contributing role of anaerobes in these infections has often been questioned.4
