An Unusual Cause of Neutropenic Fever: Spontaneous Pantoea agglomerans Bacteremia in an Adult

Victoria Zaccone¹, Mary Lockwood¹, Javier Ticona¹, Pedram Jouharian¹, Michelle Zamora¹, Christopher Hampton¹, Baho Sidiqi¹, Samir Kumar¹ and Isabel M. McFarlane^1,

¹Department of Internal Medicine, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, 11203 USA

Cite this paper

Victoria Zaccone, Mary Lockwood, Javier Ticona, Pedram Jouharian, Michelle Zamora, Christopher Hampton, Baho Sidiqi, Samir Kumar and Isabel M. McFarlane. An Unusual Cause of Neutropenic Fever: Spontaneous Pantoea agglomerans Bacteremia in an Adult. American Journal of Medical Case Reports. 2020; 8(9):289-292. doi: 10.12691/AJMCR-8-9-9

Abstract

Neutropenia is a serious complication found in immunocompromised patients, particularly those with cancer and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The etiology of neutropenia is multifactorial and can be caused by the direct effects of HIV infection, cytotoxic antineoplastic therapy, and malignancy. The main complication of neutropenia is a bloodstream infection caused by gram-positive bacteria (GPB) and gram-negative bacteria (GNB). GPB, specifically S. epidermidis, tend to affect cancer patients more often than GNB. However, GNB such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa have been associated with more serious infections. We report a case of neutropenic fever caused by a GNB, Pantoea agglomerans, in a 47-year-old Afro-Caribbean man with HIV and metastatic salivary adenocarcinoma. Pantoea agglomerans is a non-spore forming rod typically isolated from plants, fruits, and fecal matter, and is rarely pathogenic in humans. In the current literature, cases of P. agglomerans have been documented primarily in the pediatric population secondary to penetrating wound trauma. To our knowledge, this is the first case of spontaneous neutropenic fever secondary to P. agglomerans bacteremia in an Afro-Caribbean adult male.

Keywords

pantoea agglomerans, bacteremia, immunocompromised state, HIV, neutropenic fever, malignancy

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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