NEONATAL SEPSIS AND MENINGITIS CAUSED BY Edwarsiella tarda ISOLATES BELONGING TO THE SAME CLONE: A CASE REPORT

R.S. LEÃO¹*, R.M.R. SANTOS², A.L.M.C. ALBUQUERQUE³, A.P. D’A. CARVALHO-ASSE⁴, E.A. MARQUES^5
1Departamento de Microbiologia, Imunologia e Parasitologia, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Avenida 28 de Setembro, 87, fundos, 3º andar - Vila Isabel, Rio de Janeiro 20551-030, Brazil.
²Hospital Federal da Lagoa. Ministério da Saúde, R. Jardim Botânico, 501 - Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro 22470-050, Brazil.
³Hospital Federal da Lagoa. Ministério da Saúde, R. Jardim Botânico, 501 - Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro 22470-050, Brazil.
⁴Laboratório de Pesquisa em Infecção Hospitalar, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Av. Brasil, 4365 - Manguinhos - Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, Brazil.
⁵Departamento de Microbiologia, Imunologia e Parasitologia, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Avenida 28 de Setembro, 87, fundos, 3º andar - Vila Isabel, Rio de Janeiro 20551-030, Brazil.
* Corresponding Author : robson.leao@uerj.br

Received : 25-02-2015     Accepted : 12-05-2015     Published : 03-08-2015
Volume : 7     Issue : 2       Pages : 613 - 615
Int J Microbiol Res 7.2 (2015):613-615

Keywords : Neonatal sepsis, neonatal meningitis, Edwarsiella tarda
Academic Editor : Takele Abayneh Tefera, Daniel Goldemberg
Conflict of Interest : The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Acknowledgements/Funding : This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. We thank Márcia Jones for her technical support.

Edwardsiella tarda is a member of the family Enterobacteriaceae and unusually causing human disease most often in gastroenteritis. E. tarda have rarely been associated with neonatal infections. Herein report a case of sepsis and meningitis caused by E. tarda isolates belonging to the same clone in preterm newborn infant, with a gestational age of 35 weeks. Maternal habits that could be correlated with the acquisition of this bacterium were investigated and pinpointed, such as: contact with marine environments, eating raw fish, immersion in a contaminated body of water and penetrating trauma from the colonized vector. All these factors were not observed. Histopathological examination of the placenta was performed and revealed consistent results with chorioamnionitis, which may suggest the acquisition of intrauterine infection. The newborn had a good treatment outcome at 21 days with cefepime and neurological involvement was not observed. In summary, in this report we describe the first case of neonatal meningitis by E. tarda in Latin America with possible intrauterine infection acquisition with no clear maternal risk factors associated.