Sphingobacterium multivorum septicemia: a case report

A 47-year-old man presented with a history of fever, chills and weight loss for 3 months. He had been treated for diabetes mellitus during the past 3 years. He developed high fever with abnormal liver function tests. Both Widal and Weil-Felix reactions were negative with normal roentgenogram of the chest. His anti-HIV tests were positive. The cultures from the blood and sputum yielded pure Sphingobacterium multivorum sensitive to sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, cefotaxime, ceftazidine and ceftriaxone. On the next day, the patient developed signs and symptoms of meningitis with the CSF containing chronic and acute inflammatory cells but revealed no growth on culture. The patient was treated with a combination of ceftriazone and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole but he died on the 6th day after admission. This patient was the fifth reported case infected with S.multivorum. It illustrates that this potentially pathogenic organism can cause septicemia in an immunodeficient patient.