TY - JOUR AU - La Scola, Bernard AU - Boyadjiev, Ioanna AU - Greub, Gilbert AU - Khamis, Atieh AU - Martin, Claude AU - Raoult, Didier T1 - Amoeba-Resisting Bacteria and Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2003 VL - 9 IS - 7 SP - 815 SN - 1080-6059 AB - To evaluate the role of amoeba-associated bacteria as agents of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), we tested the water from an intensive care unit (ICU) every week for 6 months for such bacteria isolates; serum samples and bronchoalveolar lavage samples (BAL) were also obtained from 30 ICU patients. BAL samples were examined for amoeba-associated bacteria DNA by suicide-polymerase chain reaction, and serum samples were tested against ICU amoeba-associated bacteria. A total of 310 amoeba-associated bacteria from10 species were isolated. Twelve of 30 serum samples seroconverted to one amoeba-associated bacterium isolated in the ICU, mainly Legionella anisa and Bosea massiliensis, the most common isolates from water (p=0.021). Amoeba-associated bacteria DNA was detected in BAL samples from two patients whose samples later seroconverted. Seroconversion was significantly associated with VAP and systemic inflammatory response syndrome, especially in patients for whom no etiologic agent was found by usual microbiologic investigations. Amoeba-associated bacteria might be a cause of VAP in ICUs, especially when microbiologic investigations are negative. KW - Pneumonia KW - Ventilator-associated pneumonia KW - Legionella KW - Bosea KW - Legionnaire’s disease KW - amoeba KW - research KW - France DO - 10.3201/eid0907.030065 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/9/7/03-0065_article ER - End of Reference