Pulmonary nocardiosis in an immunocompetent patient

ABSTRACT

Nocardiosis is an uncommon bacterial infection caused by aerobic actinomycetes in the genus Nocardia. This pathogen generally causes opportunistic infection in immunocompromised hosts although infection has also been reported in immunocompetent patients. In this manuscript, we report a case of pulmonary nocardiosis without evident signs of an immunocompromising illness. A 14-years-old girl was admitted with fever, productive cough, weight loss, anorexia and occasionally bloody sputum since 2 months before. Nocardia was detected in the smear and culture of sputum. A sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim combination 'was administered, and the clinical findings improved. It is suggested that pulmonary nocardiosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of chronic pulmonary symptoms even in non immunocompromised patients