title: Serratia ficaria isolated from sputum specimen.
abstract: Serratia ficaria was first described in 1979 as a Gram-negative facultative anaerobic rod. S. ficaria was found in figs, but also isolated from human specimens in a few cases. We now report an isolate of S. ficaria from sputum specimen.A 46-year-old man was suffering from a chronic renal failure of five years, four months of peritoneal dialysis and one week of fever due to respiratory tract infection, accompanied by cough. Sputum culture yielded a Gram-negative rod. It was identified as S. ficaria and the antibiotic susceptibility test was performed by automated Vitek II (bioMerieux). The tested S. ficaria strain was susceptible to amikacin, gentamicin, cefepime, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, imipenem, meropenem, tigecycline and ciprofloxacin. This strain was resistant to ampicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, cephalothin, cefoxitine, cefuroxime and ceftriaxone. The patient was treated successfully (80 mg trimethoprim/400 mg sulfamethoxazole twice daily for 7 days)S. ficaria is an opportunistic pathogen responsible for intestinal colonization or serious infections such as septicaemia, gall bladder empyema in immunocompromised patients. The fig tree and fig play an important role in human colonization. It should be remembered that S. ficaria infections may be encountered frequently especially in fig tree culture zones.
authors: Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, Kahramanmaras, Turkey. mustafagultr@yahoo.com
authors: Mustafa
authors: M
authors: Gul
authors: Ekrem
authors: E
authors: Dogan
authors: Ekrem
authors: E
authors: Kirecci
authors: Hasan
authors: H
authors: Ucmak
authors: Ebubekir
authors: E
authors: Dirican
authors: Abdullah
authors: A
authors: Karadag
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D030681:Ficus / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008875:Middle Aged; D009894:Opportunistic Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D018805:Sepsis / Q000188:drug therapy; D012705:Serratia / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016868:Serratia Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D013048:Specimen Handling; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents