Breast Milk Transmission of a Panton-Valentine Leukocidin-Producing Staphylococcus aureus Strain Causing Infantile Pneumonia

We report on a 38-day-old infant who developed pleuropneumonia due to a Staphylococcus aureus strain responsible for familial furunculosis, which was acquired by maternal breast-feeding. All isolates from the infant and parents were genetically related by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis and produced Panton-Valentine leukocidin.