An Australian woman has become the world’s first reported survivor of a bacterium that causes the deadly “blackleg” disease in sheep and cattle.
The doctors who treated the woman reported the unique case this week in the Medical Journal of Australia, detailing the pathogen’s successful treatment after the only two previous occurrences in humans – one in Japan and the other in the United States – had turned fatal.
Dr. Ria Ko, the article’s primary author, was working as an infectious disease advanced trainee at Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital last year when the 48-year-old woman was admitted with multi-organ failure, including renal and liver failure, and very low blood pressure.
The woman was immediately admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit. She was suffering from a fever, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and signs of shock.
After completing blood culture tests, Ko discovered that the infection was caused by a bacterium named Clostridium chauvoei, which she had never heard of before.
After looking into the exposure history of the patient, Ko said, “We thought that the most likely point of entry for this bug would be from contaminated soil, with Clostridium chauvoei entering her bloodstream through these scratches.”
She said that, while nothing was spoken about how to treat humans afflicted with the bacteria, it was known in the veterinary community to be the major cause of blackleg in cattle.
Bacteria enter the bloodstream and transform into ‘flesh-eating’ bacteria
She claims that when infected soil enters the bloodstream through cuts in animals, it immediately causes myonecrosis or muscle death in the legs.
“Sheep and cattle can’t complain or communicate they have this pain so we read in the literature that the most common presenting symptom of blackleg is death because farmers find this animal dead and then find out they have blackleg,” Ko said.
She added that the bacterium in the lady created toxins that induce necrotizing enterocolitis, which causes parts of the intestinal tissue to die and is known as “flesh-eating.”
Prof David Beggs, a cattle veterinary specialist at the University of Melbourne, stated, “What happens is typically the young calves look a bit lame and when you feel the leg where they’re lame, it feels like there’s a bubble wrap in there because the bacteria eat away at the flesh and cause gas to be produced.”
“And the dead tissue that’s been macerated by the bacteria gets into the bloodstream and causes blood poisoning. So you end up firstly with gangrene, which is just the tissue dying, and the gas getting there, and then, secondly, with blood poisoning. Same in people,” he added.
