Hafnia alvei pneumonia: from bees to human beings

Hafnia alvei is an enterobacteria that is a common inhabitant of the gastrointestinal flora of bees, birds, fish, and mammals. In humans this enterobacteria has been recovered from the oropharynx and the gastrointestinal tract but it has been rarely reported as a pathogen and usually identified as hospital-acquired enterobacteria.

We describe a case of a 57-year-old woman, previously healthy, with a 7-day history of cough with brown sputum, sudden onset of chills, subjective fever, malaise, and pleuritic pain in the right hemithorax. A diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) was suspected and empiric antibiotic treatment was started. However, the patient showed no response and developed hemoptysis. A diagnosis of CAP by Hafnia alvei was confirmed with bronchoalveolar lavage and the patient was treated with i.v. cefepime 2 g TID with a good response.

We presented a case of community-acquired pneumonia by Hafnia alvei in a previously healthy patient that, as far as our knowledge reaches, is the third reported case of CAP secondary to this pathogen.