A Florida woman suffered a partial collapse of her lungs after contracting a fatal infection from a hamburger.
The unnamed patient, 32, who suffered a “crunching noise” when breathing, went to doctors after 10 days of struggling to catch her breath and dealing with a dry cough.
She was prescribed antibiotics, but when they failed, she was hospitalized and put on respiratory support.
After eight days in the hospital, tests revealed that she had been infected with the parasite toxoplasmosis, a microscopic parasite that had caused pneumonia.
She is believed to have become infected with the bacteria after eating a venison burger made from meat from a deer she hunted herself.
The patient is believed to have contracted toxoplasmosis after eating contaminated meat from a deer she had hunted herself.
The unnamed patient suffered a partial lung collapse and a ‘crackling sound’, which was due to toxoplasmosis-induced pneumonia.
At first, doctors had difficulty getting the correct diagnosis because the pathogen is usually harmless and rarely causes serious respiratory problems such as pneumonia.
He said he had not traveled outside of Florida or been around anyone sick and had no pets.
The patient reported no other health problems 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.
He cooked, served and ate the venison 20 days before going to the hospital. No one else on the hunting trip got sick.
The samples showed that the deer also carried the T gondii parasite, which causes a rare infection called toxoplasmosis that sickens 225,000 people in the United States each year.
It usually only causes flu-like symptoms; However, severe cases can cause damage to the eyes, brain, and lungs. Doctors believe the Florida patient suffered toxoplasmosis pneumonia after eating potentially contaminated venison, which they called “very unusual.”
About 5,000 Americans are hospitalized for toxoplasmosis each year and 750 die.
It kills patients by attacking the immune system and organs such as the brain and lungs, causing damage and inflammation.
Toxoplasmosis is most commonly caused by eating contaminated and undercooked meat, drinking contaminated water, and accidentally swallowing the parasite through exposure to cat feces, such as when cleaning a litter box.
Most patients contract the disease from eating undercooked meat, eating unwashed fruits or vegetables, or cleaning a cat’s litter box.
Doctors said this patient’s case was unusual because toxoplasmosis does not normally cause pneumonia.
“Although this syndrome is very unusual, it underscores the importance of a comprehensive diagnostic approach guided by a detailed clinical history, when standard treatment is ineffective and conventional tests do not provide answers,” the medical team wrote.
The case report was published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.