A very rare case of bacteraemia in a 4-year-old girl with osteopetrosis with probable Leuconostoc lactis infection

Abstract

Leuconostoc lactis (LLac) is a Gram-positive coccus of the family Leuconostocaceae . It can be found in a variety of vegetables and dairy products. LLac is an opportunistic pathogen with intrinsic resistance to vancomycin and teicoplanin. In this case report, we discuss a rare case of LLac-associated bacteraemia in a patient with osteopetrosis. A 4-year-old girl was admitted to the paediatric emergency department with acute fever without other signs. Blood culture revealed an infection with LLac. Using the streptococcus antibiogram, the isolate was resistant to vancomycin, teicoplanin, rifampicin and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim but sensitive to β-lactams, gentamicin, streptomycin, azithromycin, clarithromycin, lincomycin, clindamycin and erythromycin. The patient was treated with intravenous ceftriaxone and gentamicin, and subsequently with oral amoxicillin. After a favourable course, she was discharged from the hospital on the 10th day. The modes of transmission and physiopathology of LLac remain unknown. Factors associated with this infection include compromised immunity, previous antibiotic therapy especially with vancomycin, and application of a central venous catheter. In our patient, the risk factors for infection were pancytopenia and multiple transfusions used to treat bone marrow failure. The source of the bacteraemia could have been the cutaneous route, but it could also have been digestive due to the reservoir of the bacteria. LLac is known as an opportunistic bacterium. Further studies on its pathogenesis and other risk factors are needed to understand the true prevalence of this potentially fatal bacterium in compromised individuals, such as the case of our patient.