Invasive disease caused simultaneously by two different serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae: a microbiological appreciation

Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2024 Feb 28. doi: 10.1007/s10096-024-04787-x. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

We report a clinical case of a child with an invasive pneumococcal disease caused by two different pneumococcal serotypes that belonged to different sequence types. She was a 15-month-old girl with pneumonia and pleural effusion in which S. pneumoniae colonies with different morphologies grew, one from the blood culture (characteristic greyish appearance) and the other from the pleural fluid (mucoid appearance). The isolate from blood was serotype 22 F (ST698/CC698/GPSC61), while the isolate from the pleural fluid was serotype 3 (ST180/CC180/GPSC12). The patient fully recovered after treatment with intravenous ampicillin followed by oral amoxicillin.

Keywords: Streptococcus pneumoniae; Mixed infection; Multiple invasive infections; Sequence-types; Serotypes.