Background:Corynebacterium striatum (C. striatum) is an emerging pathogen. We outline three cases of C. striatum pneumonia where a significant hospital outbreak was prevented by the support of the microbiology department.
Case presentation: We are reporting a series of cases of nosocomial pneumonia outbreak in a tertiary care hospital's pulmonary intensive care unit, in which the predominant causative isolate for pneumonia was C. striatum. All three patients in this case series had preexisting chronic respiratory illnesses and were immunocompromised. The duration of the spread was seven to 10 days. Once the hospital outbreak was identified, they were isolated, treated with an appropriate antibiotic, and discharged. C. striatum was not isolated from any of the patient's isolates after that.
Conclusion: As a potential source of infection, C. striatum should be taken into account. Immediate isolation of the infected is necessary as this organism can cause outbreaks. It is important to identify such outbreaks, isolate the patients and treat them appropriately.
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