Pericarditis caused by Campylobacter fetus subspecies fetus associated with ingestion of raw beef liver

Campylobacter fetus is an organism residing primarily in the gastrointestinal tracts of cattle and sheep and transmitting to humans through ingestion of contaminated food products or surface water. The organism has caused various extraintestinal infections but, to date, purulent pericarditis due to the organism has rarely been described. We report a case of purulent pericarditis due to C. fetus subsp. fetus, occurring in a patient having several predisposing conditions, including receiving hemodialysis therapy, recent surgery for cecal cancer, and administration of esomeprazole. The patient mentioned having eaten homemade raw beef liver two weeks before the onset, suggesting that the ingested food product was contaminated with C. fetus and the organism transmitted to the pericardium through the bloodstream although blood culture was negative. The causative organism, recovered from the pericardial effusion, was unidentifiable with commercial systems but determinable with molecular methods at the subspecies level. The patient fully improved with pericardiocentesis and subsequent administration of ciprofloxacin, to which the organism was considered susceptible, for a total of four weeks. This is the first case of C. fetus pericarditis in which a history of ingesting a raw food product was clearly mentioned.