ID Board Review/Bacterial Diseases/HACEK Organisms

This is a group of fastidious, Gram-negative bacilli that can cause Infective Endocarditis. Because of their fastidious nature, they often require a longer period of time to grow on culture media and are held for 10 days (instead of the usual 5 days).

• Haemophilus spp
• Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans
• Cardiobacterium hominis
• Eikenella corrodens
• Kingella kingae