A 60-year-old male weeding worker has underlying disease of hypertension and dyslipidemia with regular follow-up. He visited our family medicine outpatient clinic one day due to fever accompanied by chills and cough with scanty sputum. Symptomatic treatment was given then. The patient, however, came to our emergency department after the occurrence of chest tightness and shortness of breath later. Septic shock with respiratory failure was diagnosed, and chest CT scan found diffuse lobar pneumonia. During the hospital course in Intensive Care Unit, Acinetobacter baumannii was isolated from both two of his blood culture sets. With antibiotic treatment, endotracheal intubation, ventilator use, and continuous renal replacement therapy, his symptoms improved within one month to enable his discharge with a stable condition.
A. baumannii is a common pathogen of nosocomial infection, but it is a rare and serious cause of community-acquired infection in an Asia-Pacific region like Taiwan. Usually presenting with severe and sudden onset of pneumonia and leading to multi-organ failure and high mortality rate, community-acquired A. baumannii pneumonia needs early diagnosis and appropriate initial antibiotic therapy. Through this review, we discussed the epidemiology, risk factors and further clinical characteristics of community-acquired A. baumannii pneumonia.