Bacteremia after Bacillus clausii administration for the treatment of acute diarrhea: A case report

• Published in: Biomédica
• Main Authors: Juan Pablo García, Julián Andrés Hoyos, John Alexander Alzate, Edilberto Cristancho
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish
• Published: Instituto Nacional de Salud 2021
• Subjects: bacillus clausii; bacteremia; diarrhea; probiotics; gram-positive bacteria; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7705/biomedica.5662; https://doaj.org/article/abe36c51a5d541f9af33b109c20bceb9

Bacillus clausii is a gram-positive rod used as a probiotic to treat diarrhea and the side effects of antibiotics such as pseudomembranous colitis. We report a case of B. clausii bacteremia in a non-immunocompromised patient with active peptic ulcer disease and acute diarrhea. The probiotic was administered during the patient´s hospitalization due to diarrhea of infectious origin. B. clausii was identified in the bloodstream of the patient through Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) days after her discharge. Given the wide use of probiotics, we alert clinicians to consider this microorganism as a causative agent when signs of systemic infection, metabolic compromise, and hemodynamic instability establish after its administration and no pathogens have been identified that could explain the clinical course.