Disseminated bacillus Calmette-Guerin infection in an HIV-infected child: a case with cutaneous lesions

Pediatr Dermatol. 1997 Sep-Oct;14(5):365-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1470.1997.tb00983.x.

Abstract

A boy born to a mother with unknown HIV infection was immunized with BCG in his first month of life. Seven months later axillary adenopathy developed. At the age of 10 months, 2 months after HIV infection had been diagnosed, papular skin lesions appeared all over his body. Mycobacterium bovis, BCG strain, was cultured from a lymph node and blood. Ziehl-Neelsen stain of a skin biopsy specimen showed histiocytes loaded with numerous acid-fast bacilli. The patient died 10 days later, before the infection was confirmed. This is the first reported case of disseminated BCG infection in an HIV-infected child presenting with cutaneous lesions.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Axilla*
  • BCG Vaccine / adverse effects*
  • Child
  • HIV Seropositivity*
  • Histiocytes / pathology
  • Humans
  • Lymph Nodes / microbiology
  • Male
  • Mycobacterium Infections / microbiology*
  • Mycobacterium bovis / isolation & purification*
  • Skin Diseases / microbiology*
  • Skin Diseases / pathology

Substances

  • BCG Vaccine