Pneumococcal bacteremia associated with an infected central venous catheter

Pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumoniae) bacteremia is a serious infection. Pneumococcus has never been implicated as a cause of a central venous cathe ter-related bacteremia. it has been isolated from the catheter tip only twi ce before, and in one case caused the infection of an infusion port device. We report case of a 41-year-old woman who developed pneumococcal bacteremi a after 6 days of an indwelling central venous catheter. The catheter tip g rew > 300 cfu of S pneumoniae by the roll-plate method described by Maki an d colleagues. No other focus of infection could be found in this patient. T o the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of pneumococca l bacteremia associated with an infected central venous catheter.