Comment on the letter 'Brain abscess due to Nocardia infection in an immunocompetent patient with asymptomatic pulmonary alveolar proteinosis' by de Leon et al

Abstract

Leon et al. recently have published the article entitled ‘Brain abscess due to Nocardia infection in an immunocompetent patient with asymptomatic pulmonary alveolar proteinosis’ in this journal [1]; Nocardia are non-spore, Gram-positive, aerobic, non-motile, branching, and relatively acid-fast bacteria. Nocardia species commonly live in environmental resources such as water, soil, dust and decaying plants; these organisms can enter to the human body through the wind and traumatic cutaneous inoculation and cause of pulmonary infections, brain abscesses, cutaneous, ocular, disseminated infections in immune-compromised patients and even healthy individuals [2, 3]. Wallace et al. described six drug susceptibility pattern types among clinical isolates previously identified as Nocardia asteroids [2, 4]. Therefore, for specific treatment, Nocardia spp. should be identified to the species level; also, antimicrobial susceptibility testing for nocardiosis infections is very important as a therapeutic guide for cases of severe, systemic infections, and people who are allergic to sulfonamides [5].