A 23 year old woman with a history of sickle cell disease presents with fever and severe bone pain localized to her left tibia. X-ray reveals a lytic lesion and blood cultures reveal infection. A bone culture grows gram-negative rods. Which of the following best describes the infecting organism?

The presence of sickle cell disease in a question stem is usually a significant clue. This question tests if you know that patients with sickle cell anemia are more susceptible to osteomyelitis caused by Salmonella. (The patient's fever, bone pain, and x-ray results indicate osteomyelitis). But note that Staphylococcus aureus (gram-positive coccus) is the most common cause of osteomyelitis in both sicklers and non sicklers. If it had not been ruled out on bone culture, you should have looked for it in the answer choices. Notice that you were required to know more than just the organism's name; you needed to know its distinguishing features. Salmonella exists in over 1800 serotypes and is known to contaminate poultry. A facultative intracellular parasite is Legionella, a catalase-positive gram-negative rod. It contaminates air-conditioning cooling towers and causes Legionnaire's disease (a type of pneumonia). A non motile, facultative anaerobe is Shigella, a gram-negative rod that does not produce H2S. All Shigella contain an endotoxic lipopolysaccharide. The organism causes bacillary dysentery, with abdominal cramps, fever, and mucoid, bloody diarrhea. A comma-shaped organism that is sensitive to acidic pH is Vibrio cholerae, a gram-negative rod that causes severe enterotoxin-induced diarrhea, with "rice-water" stools and dehydration. The toxin acts by stimulating adenylyl cyclase to overproduce cAMP in the brush border of the small intestine. Ref: Langford C.A. (2012). Chapter 336. Ahritis Associated with Systemic Disease, and Other Ahritides. In D.L. Longo, A.S. Fauci, D.L. Kasper, S.L. Hauser, J.L. Jameson, J. Loscalzo (Eds), Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 18e.