At least this time, it’s not a new infection, nor is it one that looks to be the end of me, but they do want to hit it hard. I had my sinus culture from June sent to my CF doctor and my awesome coordinator, Sue, called me today with news that it grew out alcaligenes xylosoxidans subsp. xylosoxidans bacteria. She was kind enough to e-mail me the spelling. I must hold the record for coming down with things or needing procedures that she needs to look up, because I keep coming down with some weird stuff that she knows is going to be followed by, “how do you spell that?” because she knows I’m going on the Internet in 0.2 seconds to look it up.
Alcaligenes xylosoxidans
Alcaligenes xylosoxidans has not been associated with increased morbidity and mortality in CF patients.
Not finding exactly what I wanted to know about this “new” bug, I found a research paper on the topic and e-mailed my old boss, weightlifting partner, and friend at Moffitt Cancer Center to see if he could get it from his databases of papers. Ten minutes later, I had a 3-page PDF sitting in my inbox that described 2 CF brothers who got the bacteria 3 years apart. They were both multiple-resistant to many drugs with everything they cultured, but the conclusion of the paper was that this bug didn’t seem to affect their health any and it even took 3 years for one of them to pass it on to the other despite their close living quarters. The paper concluded by saying, “In conclusion, there seems to be no need for aggressive antibiotic therapy to eradicate Alcaligenes xylosoxidans in CF patients.” Well, that’s good news for having a highly resistant rare human pathogen, as far as I’m concerned!