Question

30. A patient is admitted to the hospital with a fever of 103 deg F and demonstrated altered cognitive function. Family members indicated that this is the second day that he has had a fever greater than 100 deg F.   Forty-eight hours later, the lab results of a blood culture indicate that the organism is a gram negative rod and identified as Klebsiella pneumoniae. Antibiotic susceptibility results are not yet available. The patient has been given a carbapenem antibiotic but his condition continues to deteriorate?

A. What is the most likely reason for failure of the antibiotic therapy. Describe the most likely mechanism for this treatment failure.

B. What life threatening immunological event could take place if this infection continues? Describe the molecular and cellular mechanisms of this event.

Answer 1

1. The failure of the antibiotic treatment does not work or failed because it might be possible that the bacteria which has infected the patient might be antibiotic resistant so that the antibiotic was not able to kill the pathogen.

This thing can also be tested if the bacteria sample is cultured in lab and then if the bacteria colony survived in antibiotic dose then it will be confirmed that the bacteria is resistant to the antibiotic.

2. If the pathogen persists in the body over time then it will severely harm the tissue. The tissue will start to send signal to the immune cell and the immune cells like phagocytes, B & T lymphocytes all comes in action and they will start to release cytotoxins and which will ultimately kill the bacteria as well as the infected cell to stop the spreading of the disease which is really a harmful effect as the body own tissue will be damaged in this case.