Abstract
Rhodococcus equi is an unusual zoonotic pathogen that can cause life-threatening diseases in susceptible hosts. Twelve patients with R. equi infection in Kentucky were compared to 137 cases reported in the literature. Although lungs were the primary sites of infection in immunocompromised patients, extrapulmonary involvement only was more common in immunocompetent patients (P > 0.0001). Mortality in R. equi-infected HIV patients was lower in the HAART era (8%) than in pre-HAART era (56%) (P > 0.0001), suggesting that HAART improves prognosis in these patients. Most (85–100%) of clinical isolates were susceptible to vancomycin, clarithromycin, rifampin, aminoglycosides, ciprofloxacin, and imipenem. Interestingly, there was a marked difference in susceptibility of the isolates to cotrimoxazole between Europe (35/76) and the US (15/15) (P > 0.0001). Empiric treatment of R. equi infection should include a combination of two antibiotics, preferably selected from vancomycin, imipenem, clarithromycin/azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, rifampin, or cotrimoxazole. Local antibiograms should be checked prior to using cotrimoxazole due to developing resistance.
Document Type
Review
Publication Date
2016
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/2737295
Repository Citation
Gundelly, Praveen; Suzuki, Yasuhiro; Ribes, Julie A.; and Thornton, Alice C., "Differences in Rhodococcus equi Infections Based on Immune Status and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Clinical Isolates in a Case Series of 12 Patients and Cases in the Literature" (2016). Internal Medicine Faculty Publications. 93.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/internalmedicine_facpub/93
Notes/Citation Information
Published in BioMed Research International, v. 2016, article ID 2737295, p. 1-9.
Copyright © 2016 Praveen Gundelly et al.
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.