Disseminated sepsis due to a Panton-Valentine leukocidin producing strain of community acquired meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus and use of intravenous immunoglobulin therapy

Although unusual in the UK to date, sepsis due to community acquired meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) is an increasing concern globally. CA-MRSA strains typically produce the exotoxin Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), a virulence factor associated with severe, rapidly progressive, systemic disease including soft tissue infections and necrotising pneumonia, which has a mortality rate as high as 75%.1,2 A 14 year old boy presented with septicaemia and disseminated foci of infection including necrotising pneumonia, septic arthritis of the left knee, and deep vein thrombosis of the left …