TY - JOUR
T1 - Campylobacter Fetus Meningitis in Adults: Report of 2 Cases and Review of the Literature
AU - van Samkar, Anusha
AU - Brouwer, Matthijs C.
AU - van der Ende, Arie
AU - van de Beek, Diederik
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - The zoonotic pathogen Campylobacter fetus is a rare cause of bacterial meningitis. Little is known about the clinical characteristics, predisposing factors and outcome of C fetus meningitis in adults.We report cases of C fetus meningitis in a nationwide cohort study of adult bacterial meningitis patients in the Netherlands and performed a review of the literature.Two patients with C fetus meningitis were identified from January 2006 through May 2015. The calculated annual incidence was 0.02 per million adults. Combined with the literature, we identified 22 patients with a median age of 48 years. An immunocompromised state was present in 16 patients (73%), mostly due to alcoholism (41%) and diabetes mellitus (27%). The source of infection was identified in 13 out of 19 patients (68%), consisting of regular contact with domestic animals in 5 and working on a farm in 4. Recurrent fever and illness was reported in 4 patients (18%), requiring prolonged antibiotic treatment. Two patients died (9%) and 3 survivors (15%) had neurological sequelae.C fetus is a rare cause of bacterial meningitis and is associated with an immunocompromised state. Based on the apparent slow clinical response seen in this limited number of cases, the authors of this study recommend a prolonged course of antimicrobial therapy when C fetus is identified as a causative agent of bacterial meningitis. Cases appeared to do best with carbapenem therapy
AB - The zoonotic pathogen Campylobacter fetus is a rare cause of bacterial meningitis. Little is known about the clinical characteristics, predisposing factors and outcome of C fetus meningitis in adults.We report cases of C fetus meningitis in a nationwide cohort study of adult bacterial meningitis patients in the Netherlands and performed a review of the literature.Two patients with C fetus meningitis were identified from January 2006 through May 2015. The calculated annual incidence was 0.02 per million adults. Combined with the literature, we identified 22 patients with a median age of 48 years. An immunocompromised state was present in 16 patients (73%), mostly due to alcoholism (41%) and diabetes mellitus (27%). The source of infection was identified in 13 out of 19 patients (68%), consisting of regular contact with domestic animals in 5 and working on a farm in 4. Recurrent fever and illness was reported in 4 patients (18%), requiring prolonged antibiotic treatment. Two patients died (9%) and 3 survivors (15%) had neurological sequelae.C fetus is a rare cause of bacterial meningitis and is associated with an immunocompromised state. Based on the apparent slow clinical response seen in this limited number of cases, the authors of this study recommend a prolonged course of antimicrobial therapy when C fetus is identified as a causative agent of bacterial meningitis. Cases appeared to do best with carbapenem therapy
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000002858
DO - https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000002858
M3 - Review article
C2 - 26937916
SN - 0025-7974
VL - 95
SP - e2858
JO - Medicine
JF - Medicine
IS - 8
ER -