INTERESTING MICROORGANISM RECOVERED FROM 3 PATIENTS WITH SYSTEMIC DISEASE

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Abstract
A heterofore undescribed chromogenic microorganism was recovered from the blood and tissues of 3 patients (1-38) with severe systemic disease. Each of the 3 patients had clinical and/or bacteriologic evidence of active or prior tuberculosis. The organism is a gram-negative rod which is occasionally filamentous but never acid fast. It grows slowly on enriched liquid media on primary isolation, but it grows well on the surface of many solid agars once isolated. It is nonpathogenic for mice, guinea-pigs, and rabbits, even if animals are treated simultaneously with adrenal glucocorticoids. The microorganism is most susceptible in-vitro to tetracycline, novobiocin and kanamycin; but these agents were not markedly beneficial in the only patient treated with antimicrobials. The organism may be the cause of the systemic illness, a secondary invader or an unusual nonacid-fast form of human tubercle bacilli.