Pediococcus acidilactici Pneumonitis and Bacteremia in a Pregnant Woman

Pediococci are homofermentative, gram-positive, nonmotile, catalase-negative facultative anaerobes of the familyStreptococcaceae and are used in the biotechnology and food industries (1, 2, 7). The ecologic niche of pediococci in humans appears to be the enteral tract (7). Although pediococci have been described as harmless bacteria (5), they have been infrequently recovered from the human respiratory tract and saliva and also from other clinical specimens, viz., stool, urine, wounds, abscesses, peritoneal fluid, and blood from immunocompromised patients with various underlying conditions including burns, malignancies, cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, and diabetes mellitus (1-3, 5-8). They have not, however, previously been recovered from pregnant women.