On a Boat: A Case in Australia of Endophthalmitis and Pyogenic Liver, Prostatic, and Lung Abscesses in a Previously Well Patient due to Klebsiella pneumoniae

This is a case report about a patient who arrived in our emergency department in Western Australia to the care of the urologists having just gotten off a ship with a bacterial infection that would result in a 44-day stay in hospital and have quite devastating lasting effects for the young male. His story was in fact reflective of an emerging global phenomenon. Once thought to generally be a bacterium of threat only to the elderly and alcoholics, causing pneumonia and urinary tract infections, this case report describes the potentially devastating consequences of what is now becoming recognized as a hypervirulent form of Klebsiella pneumoniae with the potential to spread throughout the system rapidly seeding abscesses and causing significant morbidity in nonimmunocompromised patients. Initially noticed in Asia increasingly case reports are emerging in Western countries suggesting a global spread.