A generally healthy 63-year-old New England man developed a severe infection after eating spoiled meat, leading to vision loss in his right eye. Doctors discovered a massive hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKP) infection, a rising global threat that ravaged his lungs, liver, and brain.

Unlike its hospital-acquired counterpart, hvKP strikes healthy people in the community, causing metastatic infections. The bacteria, first identified in Taiwan in the 1980s, is notoriously difficult to diagnose and is increasingly reported worldwide, challenging standard antibiotic treatments.

His case, detailed in the New England Journal of Medicine, required transfer to Massachusetts General Hospital. The man’s worsening eye, swollen shut from panophthalmitis, was the key clue. Identifying hvKP remains tricky, though researchers are developing genetic tests to differentiate it from classical strains.