A Rare Case of Meningitis Caused by Alcaligenes faecalis in an Immunocompetent Patient

Abstract

Alcaligenes faecalis (A. faecalis) is a Gram-negative rod rarely isolated as an infective bacterium worldwide. The first cases of infections caused by this microorganism, such as pneumonia, soft tissue infections, urinary tract infections, bacteremia, and meningitis, date back more than 40 years and are almost entirely in newborns and immunosuppressed hosts. Optimal antibiotic therapy for A. faecalis has not been well established in the literature. We report a case of an immunocompetent patient in Colombia who had meningitis due to A. faecalis after a dental procedure. It is important to know about this microorganism that nowadays could be considered a potentially emerging pathogen in immunocompetent adults.

Microbiota Assessment of Fresh-Cut Apples Packaged in Two Different Films

“…Although it is considered non-pathogenic when interacting with healthy individuals, it can cause a life-threatening infection that may progress into sepsis when colonizing the bloodstream [ 28 ]. A. faecalis is a potentially emerging pathogen for hospitalized patients and it usually causes opportunistic infections in humans such as meningitis [ 29 ], peritonitis [ 30 ] or pneumonia [ 31 ]. Moreover, its resistance to several antibiotics has been increasing, turning difficult the treatment of its infections [ 32 , 33 ].…”

Effect of Penicillium Species on the Antibiotic Resistance Profile of Alcaligenes Faecalis

“…Alcaligenes faecalis is a Gram-negative, non-fermenting obligate aerobe commonly found in soil, water and human intestinal flora. Alcaligenes faecalis is found in hospital settings where it has been isolated from stool, urine, wound discharge, blood, respiratory secretions and cerebrospinal fluid (Hasan et al, 2019;Cantillo et al, 2022) and a human opportunistic pathogen (Huang et al, 2020).…”