Community-acquired pneumonia due to Panton-Valentine producing Staphylococcus aureus: first description in Tunisia

Community-acquired pneumonia due to Panton-Valentine producing S.aureus is a serious infection recently described. Many cases have been reported worldwide. We report here the first case in Tunisia. Our patient is a previously healthy fourteen-year-old girl hospitalized for bilateral hypoxemic pneumonia. The clinical course had violently deteriorated two hours later, marked by massive hemoptysis that lead to rapid degradation of her hemodynamic state and death. Toxicologic research and bloodcultures were negatives. A post-mortem pleural specimen culture yielded a meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain that carried the Panton-Valentine leucocidin genes. Community-acquired pneumonia due to Panton-Valentine producing Staphylococcus aureus is a serious affection unrecognized in our country. Thus, this pathogen must imperatively be included in the spectrum of those responsibles for pulmonary infections in children and young adults