What infections can Serratia marcescens cause?

Well-documented infections caused by S. marcescens include pneumonia, urinary tract infection, bacteremia, biliary tract infection, wound infection, meningitis, and endocarditis. Rarely does it present as cellulitis and necrotizing fasciitis (NF), resulting in severe sepsis and multiorgan failure.

What diseases are caused by Serratia marcescens?

S. marcescens has been shown to cause a wide range of infectious diseases, including urinary, respiratory, and biliary tract infections, peritonitis, wound infections, and intravenous catheter-related infections, which can also lead to life-threatening bacteremia.

What body systems does Serratia marcescens affect?

S. marcescens can infect numerous sites including urinary,¹⁶ respiratory,¹⁷ epithelia, muscle and subcutaneous tissues.

What symptoms does Serratia marcescens cause?

Symptoms may include fever, frequent urination, dysuria, pyuria, or pain upon urination. In 90% of cases, patients have a history of recent surgery or instrumentation of the urinary tract.

Is Serratia marcescens harmful to humans?

In rare cases, Serratia marcescens can be deadly.

Along with other bacteria, Serratia marcescens is a source of hospital-acquired infections, which can happen if a patient's immune system is severely compromised or if the bacterium enters the body with a catheter, respirator or other medical device.

Osmosis | Serratia Marcescens

Can Serratia cause UTI?

There have been only a few reported human cases of infections caused by Serratia rubidae in literature. Among these sparse cases there is only one reported case of urinary tract infection (UTI) due to S. rubidae in literature. The organism is known to produce a red pigment known as prodigiosin.

Is Serratia infection contagious?

Nosocomial transmission may occur by hand contact from hospital personnel and other patients. Fomites may also spread Serratia. INCUBATION PERIOD: Unknown. COMMUNICABILITY: Serratia may be directly transmitted from person-to-person, but rates are unknown ³.

Can Serratia make you sick?

More recently, Serratia marcescens has been found to be pathogenic to a small percentage of people, having been identified as a cause of urinary tract infections, wound infections, and pneumonia in hospital environments.

Where is Serratia marcescens found in the human body?

It is commonly found in the respiratory and urinary tracts of hospitalized adults and in the gastrointestinal systems of children. Due to its abundant presence in the environment, and its preference for damp conditions, S.

Can Serratia cause pneumonia?

It naturally occurs in soil and water as well as the intestines, and it is responsible for nosocomial infections. There have been few reports about community acquired pneumonia of Serratia.

Does Serratia cause diarrhea?

Serratia marcescens is incriminated in hospital-associated infections, and HIV/AIDS associated diarrhea. We have recently found that Serratia spp. may be found more commonly in the stools of patients with diarrhea than in asymptomatic control children.

What antibiotic kills Serratia marcescens?

Serratia infections should be treated with an aminoglycoside plus an antipseudomonal beta-lactam, as the single use of a beta-lactam can select for resistant strains. Most strains are susceptible to amikacin, but reports indicate increasing resistance to gentamicin and tobramycin.

Can Serratia marcescens cause a rash?

Based on the absence of similar case reports in the literature, we report these two pediatric cases to emphasize that Serratia marcessens infections can present with papillovesicular rash similar to that seen in varicella zoster infections.

Can Serratia marcescens cause skin infection?

The incidence of skin infections caused by Serratia marcescens is extremely low and such infections are typically observed in immunocompromised patients. The clinical manifestations of these infections include cellulitis, abscesses, fluctuant nodules, or granulomatous lesions.

Is Serratia marcescens pathogenic?

Serratia marcescens is a Gram-negative bacterium that causes disease in plants and in a wide range of both invertebrate and vertebrate hosts (Grimont and Grimont, 1978). It is an opportunistic human pathogen and in the last three decades there has been a steady increase in nosocomial S.

How do you get Serratia marcescens in urine?

In 90% of cases, patients have a history of recent surgery or instrumentation of the urinary tract. Important risk factors for with Serratia urinary tract infections include diabetes mellitus, urinary tract obstruction, and renal failure.

Does Serratia marcescens require isolation?

As members of the Enterobacteriaceae family, Serratia spp are motile, non-endospore forming Gram-negative rods. In the laboratorySerratia are routinely isolated from bloodstream and wound sites using blood agar culture or from respiratory and urinary sites using selective culture methods.

Is Serratia marcescens antibiotic resistant?

Aim: Serratia marcescens clinical isolates are increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Therefore, the treatment of infections caused by S. marcescens becomes difficult.

Where is Serratia from?

The pink colour is due to a pigment secreted by a species of bacteria known as Serratia marcescens, found naturally in soil, air and water. They can cause infections, but that generally happens in hospitals and affects people with compromised immune systems.

How do you get rid of Serratia marcescens bacteria?

Running your pink-tinged curtain through the washing machine on a gentle wash cycle with warm water effectively removes Serratia marcescens bacteria and any associated stains.

How does one get infected with Serratia marcescens?

Transmission is by direct contact. Droplets of S. marcescens have been found growing on catheters, and in supposedly sterile solutions. Contaminated intravenous pain control fluids were the course of an outbreak of S.

What happens if I touch Serratia marcescens?

If an infected hand touches the eye and natural immunity is unable to fend off Serratia colonization, the result might be conjunctivitis, keratitis or tear duct infections, for example. Once in the bloodstream, Serratia bacteria can cause endocarditis, bacteremia, meningitis, osteomyelitis and arthritis.

Can you be colonized with Serratia?

Colonization by Serratia spp. was associated with yearly age at admission, long ICU stay and high mortality. Both the respiratory and digestive tracts were frequently colonized. Our findings do not support the contention that the digestive tract is more important as reservoir than the respiratory tract in neonates.

What is the incubation period for Serratia marcescens?

No prodigiosin was formed in either medium when cultures were incubated at 38 C; however, after a shift to 27 C, pigmentation ensued, provided the period of incubation at 38 C was not longer than 36 hr for minimal medium or 48 hr for complete medium.

Does Serratia marcescens have an odor?

MACROSCOPIC APPEARANCE. Colonies often appear opaque, somewhat iridescent, white, pink, magenta, or red. Cultures can produce two kinds of odors, a fishy to urinary odor or a musty, potato-like odor.