Clostridium paraputrificum Bacteremia in a Patient with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection: A Case Report and Literature Review

Abstract

Clostridium paraputrificum (C. paraputrificum) is clinically important due to its association with underlying medical conditions. Infection with C. paraputrificum may worsen HIV prognosis, leading to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. However, it is not frequently isolated and its susceptibility to antibiotics has not been well studied. Our report examines the case of a patient with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, who was diagnosed with Clostridium paraputrificum bacteremia. A 59-year-old male was admitted to hospital with a medical history of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and neck pain. Following episodes of high fever, the patient received a full work up to test for sepsis. Blood culture revealed bacterial growth, and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry confirmed the diagnosis of Clostridium paraputrificum bacteremia. The patient received treatment with meropenem and vancomycin antibiotics, which cleared the infection after 48 hours; however, inflammatory markers remained high. To date, a limited number of reported cases of C. paraputrificum exist; thus, this case report contributes valuable information to the literature to improve our understanding of its action and resistance profiles and aid future bacteremia management.

Keywords:

• clostridia
• gram-positive bacteria
• anaerobe
• pathogen
• hepatitis C
• hepatitis B

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. A copy of the consent document is available for review upon request from the Editor-in-Chief of this journal.

Consent for Publication

Consent for publication was not required for this case report in accordance with the legislation and the institutional requirement at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Ms Bashayer Aldossary (Microbiology Lab, King Fahd Hospital of The University, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia) for her contribution to our work during sample processing.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no competing interests in this work.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received from any public, commercial or non-profit organization for this research.