Variant postpartum toxic shock syndrome with probable intrapartum transmission to the neonate.

We report a unique mother-infant pair with variant staphylococcal toxic shock syndrome and probable intrapartum transmission to the neonate. Diagnosis of probable toxic shock was supported by the finding of fever, desquamative skin rash, multi-organ system involvement, and pronounced mucocutaneous manifestations, including strawberry tongue, dermal swelling, pharyngitis, and vulvar edema, although hypotension was absent. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the vagina, placenta, chorioamnion, and surface swabs and gastric aspirates of the infant. The isolates produced enterotoxin C but not enterotoxin F, and illness developed in both mother and infant despite preexisting high antibody titers to enterotoxin F and enterotoxin C. This unique mother-infant pair highlights our present lack of knowledge of the precise etiology and pathogenesis of toxic shock syndrome and illustrates the consequent difficulty in clinical diagnosis and laboratory confirmation of this disease in certain patients with atypical presentations.