Rare zoonosis (hemotrophic mycoplasma infection) in a newly diagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus patient followed by a Nocardia asteroides pneumonia

Abstract

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is per se a disease characterized by suppressed immune response and thus susceptibility to various opportunistic infections. We describe the case of a 21-year old woman who developed a rare zoonosis - hemotrophic mycoplasma infection in the initial stage of SLE, complicated with Nocardia asteroides pneumonia afterwards. Nocardia infection coincided with initiation of glucocorticoids and cyclophosphamide therapy for SLE. After the treatment she recovered completely. To our knowledge the only case of human hemoplasmosis (then referred to as eperythrozoonosis) in medical literature was the one described by a group of Croatian authors 22 years ago. No cases of a hemotrophic mycoplasma infection in a SLE patient have been published up to now.