You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Unusual association of diseases/symptoms
Case report
Non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae and purpura fulminans
  1. Vivek Bhika Beechar,
  2. Carolina de la Flor and
  3. Richard J Medford
  1. Department of Infectious Disease and Geographic Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Vivek Bhika Beechar; vivek.beechar{at}phhs.org

Abstract

Haemophilus influenzae typically causes illness and infection in the paediatric population. We report a case of a 53-year-old man who developed invasive non-typeable H. influenzae infection associated with purpura fulminans and multiorgan failure. On review of the literature, this is the first reported case of non-typeable H. influenzae causing purpura fulminans. The patient was treated with intravenous ceftriaxone 2 g/day and was eventually discharged from the hospital almost 2 months after admission. We discuss the role that infection/sepsis plays in disturbances to the coagulation cascade leading to purpura fulminans and the virulence factors that make non-typeable H. influenzae unique. Finally, we review other cases of H. influenzae associated with purpura fulminans and discuss the similarities with our case.

  • infectious diseases
  • intensive care
  • haematology (incl blood transfusion)
  • pneumonia (infectious disease)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2020-234880

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors VBB, CdlF and RJM contributed to the creation of the case report including the design, the review of the literature, interpretation of the case and the discussion of the case.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.