Emerging Bacterial Infection: Identification and Clinical Significance of Kocuria Species

Abstract

Recently there have been reports of gram-positive cocci which are morphologically similar to both Staphylococci and the Micrococci. These bacteria have been identified as Kocuria species with the help of automated identification system and other molecular methods including 16S rRNA (ribosomal ribonucleic acid) evaluation. Kocuria belongs to the family Micrococcaceae which also includes Staphylococcus species and Micrococcus species. Isolation and clinical significance of these bacteria from human specimens warrant great caution as it does not necessarily confirm infection due to their ubiquitous presence, and as a normal flora of skin and mucous membranes in human and animals. Most clinical microbiology laboratories ignore such bacteria as laboratory and specimen contaminants. With increasing reports of infections associated with these bacteria, it is now important for clinical microbiologists to identify and enumerate the virulence and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of such bacteria and assist clinicians in improving the patient care and management. We review the occurrence and clinical significance of Kocuria species.

Pneumonia by Kocuria rosea: case report and literature review

“…Most laboratories do not have access to advanced biochemical and molecular tests for correct isolation (2). Risk factors for K. rosea infections include cancer, diabetes, chronic renal disease in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), short bowel syndrome (SBS) and tuberculosis (2). The microorganism's entry route has most often been related to vascular access; however, a specific entry route has not been documented in patients having cerebral abscess or acute cholecystitis (presuming that it would be haematogenous) (11).…”

Isolation of multidrug-resistant bacteria from the hospital environment

“…The main cause of increased complication was infection by K. kristinae and its resistance against antibiotics (Aleksic et al, 2016), which is in corroboration with our results. Recently, Kandi et al, 2016, in one of their review mentioned that Kocuria species belonging to family Micrococcoceae, which also include staphylococcus species was earlier not considered to be clinically significant. But, increasing the incidence of infections associated with this bacterium has made it clinically important (Kandi et al, 2016).…”

Incidence and susceptibility patterns of urine bacterial flora in young females

“…In the present study, antibiotics have not undergone susceptibility tests against Micrococci, Rothiae, Kocuria kristinae, and Burkholderia cepacia. This is because automated identification systems -although they allow accurate identificationunfortunately, do not perform susceptibility tests for some bacterial species, the fact that remains one of the most important deficiencies of these systems [19,20]. There are not adequate recent studies to indicate the pattern of Micrococcal response to antibiotics, but it is convenient here to refer to the Dürst etal findings which showed the response of Micrococcus luteus to penicillin [21].…”