AUTHOR=Xi Dee 

TITLE=Case report: Francisella philomiragia bacteremia in a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2023.1206972

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2023.1206972

ISSN=2235-2988

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Francisella philomiragia</italic> is a Gram-negative coccobacillus, which is a very rare human opportunistic pathogen causing pneumonia and systemic infection. It is difficult to identify this bacterium through conventional Gram-staining and biochemical methods due to an amorphous Gram stain appearance after 24 h culture and its relatively fastidious and slow growth giving weak and/or delayed reactions in biochemical tests. It is often misidentified as other bacteria including <italic>Haemophilus</italic> spp., <italic>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</italic>, or <italic>Sphingomonas paucimobilis.</italic> False identification may delay the therapy of the patients and even endanger the patient’s life. Here, we report a case of a 34-year-old man with acute lymphoblastic leukemia infected by <italic>F. philomiragia</italic>, which was almost misdiagnosed. This case describes our identification of a patient with a systemic <italic>F. philomiragia</italic> infection. To our knowledge, this is the first such case reported in China.</p>