Bai Chay Hospital ( Quang Ninh province) said it has just successfully saved a case of a rare disease after being bitten by a cat.
The patient was a 37-year-old male resident of Dong Trieu Town, Quang Ninh Province, who was bitten by a cat nearly 2 months before coming to the hospital while catching a domestic cat for meat.
Male patient had fever, enlarged lymph nodes, and pain after being bitten by a cat. Photo: Mac Thao
At the time of admission to the hospital, the patient had pain and swelling in the right fingertip and armpit on the same side as the cat bite, with painful swollen lymph nodes measuring about 3x2 cm.
After examination, the patient was diagnosed with cat scratch disease and monitored for sepsis. The patient was treated with pain relievers, antipyretics, and antibiotics according to the regimen.
Cat scratch disease is a worldwide recognized infection caused by the gram-negative bacillus Bartonella henselae. Cats are the natural reservoir for Bartonella henselae and the organism causes erythrocyte bacteremia and can persist for a year or longer in some cats.
The mechanism of infection can be due to cats scratching or biting, causing scratches on the patient's body, or cats licking saliva into open wounds on the patient's body.
Doctor Pham Cong Duc, Head of the Department of Tropical Diseases, Bai Chay Hospital, said that when entering the human body from a cat through a scratch or bite, the bacteria will attack the human body's lymphatic system, causing local lymphadenitis.
The armpit area on the same side of the patient bitten by a cat has painful swollen lymph nodes.
The patient will have swelling, pain, and black scabs at the site where the cat scratched, bitten, or licked. After a while, the scabs fall off but the wound does not heal like: A normal wound that is still swollen, edematous, the lymph nodes near the bite area may swell, causing fever, loss of appetite, and headache lasting 2-5 months.
If cat scratch disease is detected late, it can cause serious complications to internal organs, causing damage to the liver and kidneys; neurological complications causing encephalitis, epilepsy; eye complications causing blindness... affecting the health and threatening the life of the patient.
Doctor Duc said that although the rate of rabies caused by cat bites is quite low, it is necessary to monitor the cat's illness and death for about 15 days and go to a medical facility for advice and tetanus or rabies vaccination. In addition, families with dogs and cats need to vaccinate their dogs and cats against rabies.
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