Live Science A teenager training to be a welder contracted a rare and dangerous lung infection, prompting a combined state and federal investigation. The patient: An 18-year-old in Louisiana
The symptoms: The teenager, who was training to be a welder, developed a cough and was hospitalized with pneumonia and respiratory failure a week later. He was intubated at the hospital, meaning a tube was placed into his airway and attached to a machine to help him breathe.
The teen was six months into his welding apprenticeship, which involved working four hours per day, four days per week. He was otherwise healthy and reported being a nonsmoker with no history of excessive drinking. What happened next: The doctors ordered a blood test, which revealed an infection with a bacterium in a related group of microbes known as the Bacillus cereus group. At that point, the doctors did not know which specific bacterial species within that group had caused the infection. But most often, B. cereus group bacteria cause intestinal infections, like food poisoning, not lung infections.
Although very rare, the teen’s combination of symptoms, occupation and geographic location had previously been documented in cases involving welders in Louisiana and Texas. The knowledge of this rare phenomenon enabled the medical team to quickly identify the likely cause of his symptoms, they wrote in a report of the case.