Catheter-associated Nocardia higoensis bacteremia in a child with acute lymphocytic leukemia

Abstract

A 23-month-old child with leukemia who was receiving chemotherapy developed fevers. Serial blood cultures from a central venous catheter and a peripheral venous site grew an organism identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and phenotypic analysis as Nocardia higoensis, an opportunistic organism isolated once previously from a pulmonary infection in Japan. Copyright © 2011, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.