'Do not dismiss it': U.K. infectious disease experts warn of illness transmitted by bug bites in the Mediterranean
CTV
Infectious disease experts in the United Kingdom are highlighting an illness they say is endemic in the Mediterranean basin and are urging for more awareness and early treatment to prevent 'severe complications.'
Infectious disease experts in the United Kingdom are highlighting an illness they say is endemic in the Mediterranean basin and are urging for more awareness and early treatment to prevent “severe complications.”
The physicians point to a case of a U.K. man in his 50s who tested positive for the illness, called Mediterranean spotted fever (MSF), after returning home following a trip to the Mediterranean. Their report on the case was published in December in the BMJ,a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the British Medical Association.
The man’s symptoms began a day after he returned from his trip, starting with symptoms of malaise, fever, chills and a severe headache, the report states.
The report included an account by the patient. “In late spring I took a trip to the Mediterranean,” he said.“I was bitten by an insect in the long grass but dismissed it because this often happens. Within a few days of my return home, I started to feel unwell.”
After multiple days of symptoms that were escalating to include shortness of breath, he was hospitalized with sepsis, which is an extreme response to an infection and is life threatening. It involves the body’s immune response turning on its own organs, causing them to fail, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The sepsis he experienced affected multiple organs and he also developed what’s called a maculopapular rash, which involves flat and raised skin lesions. He also developed eschar, which is a piece of dead tissue that falls off the surface of the skin, on his hips. As well, he had pink eye in both eyes.
He tested positive for Rickettsia spp (spotted fever group bacteria). Doctors concluded that this was most likely a case of MSF, caused by a bacterium called Rickettsia conorii. He was given antibiotics over the course of 14 days in the hospital and was able to recover well, the physicians state.
