Family outbreak of fatal Yersinia enterocolitica pharyngitis

A family outbreak of fatal Yersinia enterocolitica pharyngitis is reported. Two members of a family were hospitalized for pharyngitis and posed a diagnostic dilemma until cultures of throat, blood, and stool revealed Y. enterocolitica. Neither patient responded to erythromycin therapy. The first patient died, and her husband's life-threatening illness seemed to respond to aminoglycoside and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole therapy. Y. enterocolitica should be considered as an etiologic agent in the differential diagnosis of a patient with pharyngitis whose condition deteriorates during erythromycin or penicillin therapy.