A Florida woman suffered partially-collapsed lungs after contracting a deadly infection from a burger.
The unnamed patient, 32, who suffered a ‘cracking noise’ when she breathed, went to doctors after 10 days of struggling to catch her breath and dealing with a hacking cough.
She was prescribed antibiotics, but when they failed, she was hospitalized and given breathing assistance.
After eight days in the hospital, tests revealed she had been infected with the parasitite toxoplasmosis, a microscopic parasite that had led to pneumonia.
It is believed that she was infected with the bacteria after eating a venison burger made with meat from a deer she hunted herself.
It’s believed that the patient got toxoplasmosis after eating contaminated meat from a deer she had hunted herself
The unnamed patient suffered partially collapsed lungs and a ‘crackling sound,’ which was from toxoplasmosis-induced pneumonia
Doctors at first struggled to get the correct diagnosis because the pathogen is normally harmless and rarely causes severe breathing issues like pneumonia.
She said she had not traveled outside of Florida or been around anyone sick, and she did not own any pets.
The patient reported no other health issues and did not use tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs.
It wasn’t until her friend told infectious disease doctors at the University of South Florida that she had recently hunted deer during a trip to Alabama with her boyfriend.
She cooked, served, and ate the venison meat 20 days before going to the hospital. No one else on the hunting trip got sick.
Samples showed that the deer was also carrying the parasite T gondii, which causes a rare infection called toxoplasmosis that sickens 225,000 in the US each year.
It usually just causes flu-like symptoms, however, severe cases can lead to eye, brain, and lung damage. Doctors believe the Florida patient suffered pneumonia from toxoplasmosis after eating the potentially contaminated deer meat, which they called ‘highly unusual.’
Roughly 5,000 Americans are hospitalized from toxoplasmosis every year, and 750 die.
It kills patients by attacking the immune system and organs like the brain and lungs, leading to damage and inflammation.
Toxoplasmosis is most often caused by eating undercooked, contaminated meat, drinking contaminated water, and accidentally swallowing the parasite through exposure to cat feces – such as cleaning a litter box.
Most patients get the disease from undercooked meat, eating unwashed fruits or vegetables, or cleaning a cat’s litter box.
The doctors said this patient’s case was rare because toxoplasmosis does not typically cause pneumonia.
‘Although this syndrome is highly unusual, it underscores the importance of a comprehensive diagnostic approach guided by a detailed history taking, when standard treatment is ineffective and conventional testing fails to yield answers,’ the medical team wrote.
The case report was published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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