CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Background: Among Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) species, B. contaminans represents the most prevalent species in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) in Argentina1. Airways colonization with this species is generally associated to a rapid decline in lung function of patients with CF. As other BCC infections if early colonization is not treated it would most probably result in a chronic lung infection which are very difficult to eradicate, increasing morbidity and mortality of patients2. We here present three cases of first pulmonary infections with B. contaminans which were early eradicated with inhaled ceftazidime for 6 month.Methods: During first airways infection of two 6-month-old babies (a girl and a boy), and 1-months-old boy, attended at a CF pediatric center in Argentina, B. contaminans was the only species recovered from respiratory samples. Isolates were obtained using BCSA plates and identified by biochemical assays and recA-PCR-based technology. The three patients were treated with inhaled ceftazidime 500 g once a day for six months after bronchodilators and physiotherapy. After treatment respiratory samples were sequentially recovered every two months and BCC cultures were carried out.Results: Children tolerated well the applied therapy. None of the three children had respiratory exacerbations for the following six months and all subsequent microbiology samples analyzed were negative for BCC.Conclusion: These results show that the inhaled ceftazidime therapy may represent a significant advance in the early and successful eradication of B. contaminas first infections, delaying the onset of chronic lung infection in patients with CF. Nevertheless, a well-designed study is urgently needed for the eradication of this local highly prevalent species of BCC.References1Martina et al. 2013. J. Clin. Microbiol, 51, 1 339?442Martina et al. 2014. Inter. J. Med. Microbiol., 304,8, 1182?91