Pneumococcal endocarditis in a 7-week-old infant. A case complicated by congenital heart malformation with mitral valve perforation.

A 7-week-old girl had pneumococcal endocarditis and perforation of the mitral valve. Pneumococcal endocarditis in children under 2 years of age is extremely rare, and is a prototype for endocarditis in general in infants less than 2 years of age. To our knowledge, this is the youngest reported patients with pneumococcal endocarditis in the penicillin era.