Clinical and microbiological characteristics of Chryseobacterium spp. isolated from neonates in Kuwait

Abstract

Introduction: Generally considered to be part of the environmental flora, Chryseobacterium spp. have been reported to cause infection in humans, albeit rarely. The clinical significance of these organisms remains to be fully established, despite being isolated from patients, especially neonates, and immunocompromised subjects. Case presentation: We present a study of 10 isolates of Chryseobacterium spp. cultured from blood and endotracheal secretions of neonates in two hospitals, Farwaniya Hospital (FH) and Maternity Hospital (MH), Kuwait, identified using the Phoenix or Vitek 2 system from April to November 2012. The clinical features of the patients were assessed, and antimicrobial susceptibilities of the isolates were performed by disk diffusion test and Etest. Molecular identification of bacteria was done by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and fingerprinting by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Patients suffered from sepsis, pneumonia or other clinical conditions. Two strains of Chryseobacterium indologenes and eight strains of Chryseobacterium meningosepticum (now Elizabethkingia meningosepticum) were cultured from clinical samples from FH and MH, respectively. Both C. indologenes and six of the C. meningosepticum strains were isolated from endotracheal secretions, and two of the latter were from blood. Identification of isolates was confirmed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. All isolates were multidrug resistant and eight were metallo-b-lactamase positive. Five patterns of Chryseobacterium spp. were identified by RAPD. Conclusion: It appears that Chryseobacterium spp. are emerging pathogens for neonates in Kuwait, causing serious systemic infections.