An elderly man infected with a dangerous disease from the family cat, this clinical case describes a New England Journal of Medicine. Cats are usually associated with the risk of transmitting toxoplasmosis, but in this case we are talking about the more rare and dangerous disease.
Disease 68-year-old resident of Missouri, whose name was not called, began with a week of fever, after which he developed swelling on the right side of the neck, which then increased within two months.
Approximately two months before the events described cat men died, according to veterinarians, from feline leukemia. Laboratory this diagnosis wasn’t confirmed.
At the hospital the man was diagnosed with the bubonic tularemia. This is an especially dangerous infection that currently has limited prevalence. Its main natural reservoirs are rats, birds, rarer Pets. Bubonic tularemia can be transmitted to humans by several routes, including insect bites and direct contact with infected animals. Cases of human infection are rare.
The disease is caused by bacteria Francisellatularensis, affects the skin, eyes, lymph nodes and lungs. Symptoms usually include pain and swelling of the lymph nodes, fever, chills, headaches and fatigue of the body. Without timely treatment, a person can die.
The main treatment of tularemia are antibiotics. In the described case, the patient received them within four weeks. Within five days the size of the lymph nodes started to decrease after three weeks they were normal.
Ukrainian Andrei