Capnocytophaga canimorsus meningitis in a 38-year-old immunocompetent woman from household pet exposure.
Publication/Presentation Date
3-24-2022
Abstract
A 38-year-old otherwise healthy woman with no history of immunocompromise, recent travel, or concerning exposures presented to the ED with several days of nonspecific cold-like symptoms with associated generalized headache. After the patient was symptomatically treated and discharged, she returned several hours later with worsening of symptoms and new vomiting, confusion, and sensorineural hearing loss. Blood and cerebrospinal fluid cultures eventually returned positive for a Capnocytophaga canimorsus infection, a bacterial pathogen found in the saliva of dogs and cats. Only after that, the patient recalled being scratched and licked by her pets, two dogs and a cat. She was treated with a course of systemic steroids, antibiotics and discharged home.
ISSN
1532-8171
Published In/Presented At
Fennell AG, Wilson KS, Caja KR, Parikh PM. Capnocytophaga canimorsus meningitis in a 38-year-old immunocompetent woman from household pet exposure [published online ahead of print, 2022 Mar 24]. Am J Emerg Med. 2022;S0735-6757(22)00200-5. doi:10.1016/j.ajem.2022.03.043
Disciplines
Emergency Medicine
PubMedID
35365375
Department(s)
Department of Emergency Medicine, Fellows and Residents, USF-LVHN SELECT Program
Document Type
Article
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.