Staphylococcus aureus septicaemia in a patient with cystic fibrosis

Although bacterial colonisation of bronchi may occur from early childhood onwards, infections extending beyond the lungs are uncommon in patients with cystic fibrosis. A 12-year-old boy with cystic fibrosis, receiving oral corticosteroids for 3 weeks because of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, experienced pneumonia and septicaemia caused by Staphylococcus aureus. He was treated with flucloxacillin, ticarcillin-clavulanate, aztreonam, cefazolin and rifampin according to resistance testing of S. aureus cultured from the blood. On day 25 the patient finally had recovered. Conclusion Systemic steroid therapy for allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis may favour life-threatening systemic bacterial infection which is rare in the immunocompetent patient with cystic fibrosis.