Sepsis caused by Chromobacterium violaceum – probably the first case in Europe, or Macbeth read anew

Rare diseases, almost by definition, present us with diagnostic as well as therapeutic difficulties as. They also include infectious diseases outside endemic areas. Without expecting them, we are not preparing to fight them. Like Macbeth, we feel safe, convinced that tropical diseases do not reach us, like Birnam forest towards his castle. Nevertheless, the forest moved according to the prophecy of the three witches, and in a similar way tropical flora is moving towards us according to the predictions of environmentalists. This is illustrated by the history of the presented patient, who was admitted to hospital because of sepsis caused by Chromobacterium violaceum (CV), a Gram-negative facultatively anaerobic, oxidase-positive bacterium producing a dark violet antioxidant pigment called violacein. This is probably the first documented case report of sepsis in this part of the world. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the patient is the first to require dialysis after Chromobacterium violaceum infection.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

11 more references, whose wording the paper’s licence keeps private.

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.