Paenibacillus barengoltzii bacteremia in an immunocompromised child

Bacteremia is defined by the presence of bacteria in the blood. The population most affected concerns immunocompromised children.  The genus Paenibacillus is a gram-positive bacillus; infections due to these bacteria are extremely rare.  This observation reports the case of Paenibacillus barengoltzii bacteremia, and highlights the contribution of Maldi Tof mass spectrometry in the identification of unusual bacteria.

This is a 14-month-old infant who is being treated for acute myeloid leukemia at the pediatric onco-hematology hospital at University Hospital Mohammed VI in Marrakesh. After 24 hours of incubation of the blood cultures in an automated blood cultures incubator BACTEC®, direct examination revealed gram-positive bacteria, the culture highlighted after 24 hours of incubation of bright and smooth grey colonies, identification by Maldi-tof mass spectrometry of bacterial colonies revealed a Paenibacillus barengoltzii on 3 spaced blood cultures. The antibiogram performed on the BD Phoenix automatic showed a multi-sensitive strain to antibiotics.