Nocardiosis: Report of Two Cases in Children

Introduction  Recently infections due to Nocardia asteroides have been reported with increasing frequency. Ballenger and Goldring¹ collected 95 cases from the literature and added 1 case of their own. Peabody et al.² and Peabody and Seabury³ have questioned the authenticity of many reported cases, and the latter authors accept only slightly more than 50 cases, to which they add 15 cases of their own. In addition, several more recent cases have been described.^4-6Only 12 cases have been reported in the pediatric age group. This report concerns two cases occurring in children, representing two of the commoner manifestations of nocardiosis and illustrates the importance of diagnosis and proper therapy in this disease.

Report of Cases  CASE 1.—A 9-month-old white boy, beginning at age 2 weeks and persistently thereafter, had a severe furunculosis due to Staphylococcus pyogenes var. aureus. On one occasion there was bacteremia due to