Streptomyces Pneumonia in An Immunocompetent Adult—A Rare Isolate

Abstract

Streptomyces belongs to the Actinomycetes group of bacteria which are gram-positive non acid-fast bacilli, widely recognised for their potential to produce antimicrobials active against bacterial, mycobacterial, parasitic and fungal infections. They commonly cause cutaneous infections following traumatic inoculation. Visceral infections are relatively rare and limited to immunocompro-mised hosts. We describe a case of Streptomyces pneumonia in a healthy immunocompetent female, who when investigated for voluntary kidney donation, resulted in the isolation of Streptomyces species from bronchial wash cultures. Streptomyces, a potential pathogen in immunocompetent hosts is frequently underdiagnosed. Once isolated, both physicians and microbiologists should pay attention to differentiate true infection from contamination.

Streptomyces albireticuli lung infection managed as a pulmonary air cyst: a case report and literature review

“…Actinomycetoma is the most commonly observed infection caused by Streptomyces spp. Additionally, Streptomyces can also cause rare invasive infections such as pulmonary infections and other diseases ( Herbrík et al., 2020 ; Bai et al., 2021 ). A retrospective study of Streptomyces isolates identified from clinical samples in French microbiology laboratories showed that nearly half of Streptomyces infections with complete clinical documentation were invasive ( Gras et al., 2022 ).…”

Evaluation and comparison of antibiotic susceptibility profiles of Streptomyces spp. from clinical specimens revealed common and region-dependent resistance patterns

“…griseus and S. viridis 1 – 5 . In addition to mycetoma, Streptomyces can also cause rare invasive infections such as pulmonary infections, bacteremias, brain abscesses, peritonitis and other diseases, mainly in immunocompromised patients (reviewed in 6 , 7 ). New approaches using next generation sequencing have recently shown that Streptomyces are likely a common part of the human 8 – 11 .…”

“…The tendency to isolate streptomycetes from clinical specimens has increased in the last decade 1 , 6 , 7 , 14 , 16 – 19 . This may be due to increasing air pollution in industrial and agricultural areas (dust as a vector for Streptomyces spores), but also to a growing number of immunodeficient patients caused by extrinsic/external factors (e. g. HIV infection, immunosuppressive drugs, environmental toxins or malnutrition) 20 .…”