A young child, age 3, had her vacation in Costa Rica ruined when an iguana bit her hand and stole her cake. If that wasn’t enough the reptile transmitted a rare bacterial infection that the little girl had to endure for months. Thankfully, her infection was treatable.
Medical practitioners will present the unusual case at the annual European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases. Last week, the incident became public knowledge.
Iguana Bites Child on Vacation
The child and her family were holidaying in Costa Rica when the cake-stealing lizard bit the girl. She was eating her cake on the beach when the large lizard ran up and chomped on the back of her hand before disappearing with her dessert.
Her parents took the child to a local clinic where they disinfected her hand and gave her the antibiotic amoxicillin to protect against Salmonella bacteria. Reptiles can carry Salmonella bacteria.
The wound healed with no issues and everything seemed to be doing well. That is until five months later the child began developing a small bump at the site of the bite. Over the next three months, the bump grew and became painful.
Infection
The family took her to Stanford Children’s Health where doctors discovered a nearly one-inch mass. Furthermore, there was a buildup of dead tissue and pus around the wound. This indicated there was an infection. Doctors sent the pus out to be studied. It didn’t take long for researchers to identify the culprit, a species of bacteria known as Mycobacterium marinum.
This bacteria is in the same family as the bacteria responsible for human diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis. M.marinum has been known to cause tuberculosis-like illnesses in fish which can cause skin infections in humans.
This is the first case to be transmitted by an iguana. Usually, it is traced back to swimming or exposure to infected fish.
By Sheena Robertson
Sources:
Gizmodo: Wild Iguana Steals Little Girl’s Cake, Gives Her Rare Bacterial Infection
The Guardian: Toddler’s mystery infection traced back to cake-snatching iguana
US News: Iguana Bite Left Vacationing Toddler a Medical Issue Months Later
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Andy Rogers‘ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Rubí Flórez‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
