Abstract

The care of cancer patients, including recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, has numerous challenges for hospitals that must provide safe environments in which exposure to pathogens that generate morbidity and mortality is reduced at maximum. At the same time, they must have established protocols that allow a rational study of the possible infectious etiologies and the existence of an adequate therapeutic arsenal together with timely treatment algorithms, updated according to consensus guidelines and effective according to the suspected or confirmed infection. This article introduces some of the arguments that support these requirements, then that are developed in three successive articles dedicated to the hospital environment, diagnostic protocols and therapeutic arsenal.