A 38-year-old man with no relevant medical history was hospitalized in the intensive care unit with fever and nonspecific respiratory symptoms, which rapidly progressed to severe respiratory failure, septic shock, and multiple organ failure. He required vasopressor support, invasive ventilation, and antibiotic treatment with penicillin, clindamycin, and linezolid after Streptococcus pyogenes was isolated in respiratory samples and blood cultures. Despite treatment, fever persisted, as did a consolidation on the chest X-ray (Figure 1). Computed tomography (Figure 2) revealed necrosis and a lung abscess in the right upper lobe. This case highlights a severe presentation of invasive Streptococcus pyogenes infection, emphasizing the need to consider this etiology in the differential diagnosis, even in patients without known risk factors.

Figure 1

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