Rare tracheobronchitis agent in a patient with AIDS: Bordetella bronchiseptica

Introduction: Bordetella bronchiseptica is an aerobic, Gram-negative pleomorphic coccobacillus. It can infect various mammals including cats, dogs, and pigs. Bordetella bronchiseptica rarely infect humans. Infants, immunosuppressed and HIV infected persons, and patients with comorbidities constitute the risk group for B. bronchiseptica infections. Bordetella bronchiseptica may lead to disseminated infection, cavitary pneumonia, and rarely fatal tracheobronchitis and sepsis. Case Presentation: A patient who was in follow-up due to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was admitted to our hospital with persistent dry cough and fever for 4 weeks. The clinical history revealed the presence of classical anti-retroviral resistant HIV infection, and the development of blindness in the right eye because of retinitis. The case was considered as febrile neutropenia; the meropenem therapy was started empirically. Even though we were able to get fever response with empirical therapy, cough remained persistent. Throat culture was inoculated into 5% sheep blood agar and incubated at 37°C. Gram-negative coccobacillus was detected in the examination. Then, the colonies were loaded to MALDI-TOF-VITEK MS and the disease factor was determined as B. bronchiseptica. We stopped meropenem therapy on 7th day and administered clarithromycin 2 × 500mg orally for 14 days. Conclusions: In AIDS patients with chronic cough, B. bronchiseptica should be considered as a pathogen causing opportunistic infection. In this manuscript, we report a case of tracheobronchitis caused by B. bronchiseptica in an AIDS patient.