Shewanella algae bacteraemia in a patient with a chronic ulcer after contact with seawater on vacation in Turkey: A case report from a German maximum-care hospital

Cara Symanzik; Jutta Esser; Niels Pfennigwerth; Christoph Reuter; Jan Bronnert; Matthias Grade

doi:10.1016/j.nmni.2022.101016

Shewanella algae bacteraemia in a patient with a chronic ulcer after contact with seawater on vacation in Turkey: A case report from a German maximum-care hospital

New Microbes New Infect. 2022 Aug 29:48:101016. doi: 10.1016/j.nmni.2022.101016. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Authors

Cara Symanzik^{1

2}, Jutta Esser^{2

3}, Niels Pfennigwerth⁴, Christoph Reuter⁵, Jan Bronnert⁶, Matthias Grade⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Interdisciplinary Dermatological Prevention and Rehabilitation (iDerm) at Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany.
² Department of Dermatology, Environmental Medicine and Health Theory, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany.
³ Laboratory Medical Practice Osnabrück, Georgsmarienhütte/Osnabrück, Germany.
⁴ National Reference Centre for Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacteria, Department of Medical Microbiology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
⁵ Department of General Surgey and Abdominal Surgery, Specialized Abdominal Surgery and Proctology, Christian Hospital of Quakenbrück, Quakenbrück, Germany.
⁶ Department of Pneumology and Infectiology, Christian Hospital of Quakenbrück, Quakenbrück, Germany.
⁷ Department of Gastroenterology, General Internal Medicine and Infectiology, Christian Hospital of Quakenbrück, Quakenbrück, Germany.

Abstract

After seawater baths in Antalya, Turkey, a 55-year-old man suffered from Shewanella algae bacteraemia. Imported/travel-related S. algae infections should be kept in mind, also in usually rather cold geographical areas, as patterns of seawater-associated bacilli infections might change due to warming of seawater caused by climate change.

Keywords: Bacteraemia; Emerging pathogen; Shewanella algae; Shewanellaceae; Skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI); rare pathogen.