A Case of Lemierre Syndrome in the Era of COVID-19: All That Glitters Is Not Gold

Abstract

We report a case of a 15-year-old female presenting with a serious multisystemic inflammatory illness during a surge of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) cases in our county. The initial clinical findings of sore throat and neck stiffness, followed by signs of sepsis, raised suspicion of Lemierre syndrome early in her hospital course. However, the presence of severe respiratory distress, multifocal pneumonia with pleural effusion on chest radiograph, acute kidney injury, and the discovery of coronary artery ectasia, pointed to the new entity "multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C)."Immune modulatory treatment was thus considered. However, progressive neck pain and swelling, coupled with the eventual growth of Fusobacterium necrophorum on blood culture, eventually led to the correct diagnosis of Lemierre syndrome.