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A Missouri man has his cat to thank (or more likely to blame) for making a story in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A graphic photo of the man – with glowing, bulbous lesions on the right side of his face and neck – was published on the journal's website last week.
The unidentified man, aged 68, has caught a rare infectious disease of his cat called glandular tularemia, according to the newspaper.
His case was reported by St. Louis physicians Laura Marks of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Andrej Spec at the University of Washington.
The man visited a primary care clinic after suffering for two months with a painful swelling in the neck and face and a week of fever, the newspaper reported.
According to the newspaper, her outdoor cat had died two days before the onset of her symptoms.
Spec said on Twitter that the cat had been "misdiagnosed with feline leukemia and that the patient was infected while taking care of her".
"Apparently, a veterinarian had diagnosed a feline leukemia in the man without doing any test and told him to treat his cat with prednisone," writes the blog IFLScience.
"Now, as anyone who might have thought of giving a cat medication, this process undoubtedly involved close contact and perhaps even some bites and scratches – a perfect opportunity for F. tularensis to jump from one cat to another." another.
The man has been tested positive for the bacteria Francisella tularensis, responsible for tularemia in animals and in humans, the newspaper reports.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people can become infected with tick and deer bites, by touching infected animals and drinking contaminated water.
According to the Mayo Clinic, it "generally attacks the skin, eyes, lymph nodes and lungs". "The disease mainly affects mammals, especially rodents, rabbits and hares, although it can also infect birds, sheep and domestic animals, such as dogs, cats and hamsters."
According to the medical journal, domestic cats "can be infected by the consumption of infected prey and can transmit the bacteria to humans".
The disease is also commonly known as "rabbit fever" because hares and rodents are particularly susceptible and can die in large numbers if they have them. About 100 to 200 cases of human rabbit fever are reported each year in the United States, according to the website of the Illinois Department of Public Health.
According to the CDC, cases have been reported in all states except Hawaii, but the disease is most prevalent in the south-central United States, the Pacific Northwest, and parts of Massachusetts.
In 2016, 109 of the 230 cases reported in the country came from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Colorado, according to the CDC.
Most infections in humans, according to the CDC, are treated with antibiotics.
The Missouri patient was treated with anitobiotic doxycycline for four weeks, the diary reported, and the lesions improved within five days and disappeared within three weeks.
The IFL science blog reiterated how many cases like this are among pet owners and advised to monitor the symptoms of the disease – including loss of appetite, dehydration and pneumonia – before becoming serious.
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