Not your typical pneumonia

Panton-Valentine leukocidin is a cytotoxin produced by Staphylococcus aureus. It was initially discovered by Van deVelde in 1894 due to its ability to lyse leukocytes. However, it was named after Sir Philip Noel Panton and Francis Valentine, when they described it in 1932 as a dermo-necrotic and leukocidal toxin. Panton and Valentine described this strain of S. aureus as a non-life-threatening, soft-tissue infection that caused recurrent furunculosis and abscesses; however, it is currently implicated in more serious and invasive infections in children and young healthy adults. This paper presents a case of the most fatal of these infections: necrotising haemorrhagic pneumonia.