Helicobacter cinaedi-associated bacteraemia and erysipelas in an immunocompetent host: a diagnostic challenge.

Helicobacter cinaedi was initially recovered from homosexual men infected with human immunodeficiency virus. Later, it was also isolated from patients with chronic alcoholism, and anecdotally from non-immunocompromized men, women, and children. We describe a case of H. cinaedi-associated bacteraemia and erysipelas in a homosexual but immunocompetent male and the diagnostic problems in identifying the causative organism.