A simple cat scratch can develop serious infections in immunocompromised people.
- Sepsis, or sepsis, is a serious infection that spreads through the body through blood.
- In the absence of treatment, various metabolic and functional systems are quickly overwhelmed and/or altered by the damage caused by bacterial invasion.
Immunocompromised patient developed fatal sepsis after being scratched by his cat, reports the BMJ case report. A phenomenon on the increase, according to doctors.
“Better inform immunocompromised people”
“The probability of zoonotic infections is greater with the increase in the number of households with pets”, write the experts. “Although in most healthy individuals these infections are self-medicating, they are more severe in immunocompromised people,” they explain.
“This case illustrates the need for a detailed history, including pet history, in immunocompromised patients presenting with fever of unknown origin,” they warn. “It is also necessary to better inform immunocompromised people about the risks they run in taking a pet”, they insist.
cat scratch disease
The sepsis reported in this case report was likely caused by cat-scratch disease. called “benign inoculation lymphoreticulosis”, It is an infection caused by the bacterium Bartonella henselae. The latter is transmitted from one cat to another by fleas, and is mainly lodged in the oral cavity of pets.
Cat scratch disease is the most common disease transmitted by scratching. It can also be caused by a cat bite or licking a skin wound (on a child’s leg, for example). It mainly affects children and adults under the age of 20 as well as people with immunosuppression (for example suffering from cancer or HIV carriers, or undergoing immunosuppressive treatment).
To limit the circulation of the Bartonella henselae bacterium, you can regularly treat your cat against fleas.
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