J Clin Microbiol. 1999 Apr; 37(4): 1227-8.

Case of sepsis caused by Bifidobacterium longum.

Ha GY, Yang CH, Kim H, Chong Y.

Departments of Clinical Pathology, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Kyongju, Korea.

We report a case of sepsis caused by Bifidobacterium longum in a 19-year-old male who had developed high fever, jaundice, and hepatomegaly after acupuncture therapy with small gold needles. Anaerobic, non-spore-forming, gram-positive bacilli were isolated from his blood and finally identified as B. longum. He recovered completely after treatment with ticarcillin and metronidazole. To our knowledge, this is the first report of incidental sepsis caused by B. longum.