Pediatric invasive disease due to Haemophilus influenzae serogroup A in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: case series

We describe the first two cases of invasive disease caused by Haemophilus influenzae serotype A in Saudi Arabia. This is the first known reported invasive Haemophilus influenzae serotype A from Saudi Arabia. Case presentation: A ten-month-old and three-month-old male not known to have any past hist...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zailaie Roaa, Alawfi Abdulsalam, Ghazi Shahid, Baba Kamaldeen, Al Fawaz Tariq
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries 2016-05-01
Series:Journal of Infection in Developing Countries
Subjects:
Online Access:https://jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/6687
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We describe the first two cases of invasive disease caused by Haemophilus influenzae serotype A in Saudi Arabia. This is the first known reported invasive Haemophilus influenzae serotype A from Saudi Arabia. Case presentation: A ten-month-old and three-month-old male not known to have any past history of any medical illness and who had received H. influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine presented to our hospital mainly with fever of few days’ duration. A provisional diagnosis of meningitis with sepsis was made and laboratory tests were requested. The chest radiograph was normal. The laboratory results revealed leukocytosis, but leukopenia was noticed in the younger infant. Blood culture and cerebrospinal fluid specimens yielded a pure culture of Haemophilus influenzae and serotyping showed the isolates to be serogroup A. Both patients were started on vancomycin and third-generation cephalosporin. On receiving the blood culture result, vancomycin was stopped. Fever subsided after 48 hours, while in the second case, it continued for 12 days from the admission date. The repeat blood cultures were negative. Antibiotic therapy was given for 10 days for the first case with an unremarkable hospital course, while the second case was complicated by seizure and received a longer duration of antibiotics. Both infants were discharged home in good condition. Conclusions: Invasive non-typeable H. influenzae strains are emerging and there is a need for surveillance of this disease. This has implications in future vaccine development.
ISSN:1972-2680