Rickettsia felis Pulmonary Infection Detected via Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing in a Clonorchiasis Patient: A Case Report

Sha Wen; Jing-Jing Zeng; Ying Li

doi:10.2147/IDR.S481950

Rickettsia felis Pulmonary Infection Detected via Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing in a Clonorchiasis Patient: A Case Report

Infect Drug Resist. 2024 Nov 25:17:5189-5194. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S481950. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Sha Wen^#¹, Jing-Jing Zeng^#¹, Ying Li¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Rickettsia felis (R. felis) is a Gram-negative obligate intracellular bacterium with a global presence across various hosts, including mammals, humans, and ectoparasites. Herein, we present a case of R. felis infection in a previously healthy 43-year-old male with a history of Clonorchis sinensis and recent corticosteroid use. The identification of R. felis was accomplished through metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) of the patient's bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). This case represents the first documented pulmonary infection caused by R. felis in China, confirmed by mNGS analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and reported from Shenzhen, China.

Keywords: Rickettsia felis; bronchoalveolar lavage fluid; mNGS technology; pulmonary infection.

Publication types

Case Reports

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Shenzhen Fund for Guangdong Provincial High-level Clinical Key Specialties (No. SZGSP006), the Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen (No. SZSM202211016), and the Shenzhen Second People’s Hospital Clinical Research Fund as part of the Shenzhen High-level Hospital Construction Project (Grant Nos. 20223357008 and 2023xgyj3357003).