• health

• news

4 people were infected with an exotic virus, 2 died.

The source of the infection shocked the researchers

At the height of another epidemic in general, a mysterious tropical bacterium appeared that infected 4 people in the US and killed two of them. No one understood where the exotic bacterium came from while the sky was closed, until the CDC detectives cracked the strange mystery

Tags

• mystery

• Disease

• Bacteria

Walla!

health

Friday, 29 October 2021, 06:23 Updated: 06:47

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments

A few months ago, while the whole world was busy dealing with another virus in general - US health authorities noticed several suspicious cases: a dangerous and rare tropical virus infected several people in Minnesota, Kansas and Texas - all clearly non-exotic states. First patient identified, resident Kansas infected in March, died from a rare disease.

all patients tested positive for bacteria called Burkholderia Pseudomallei that causes the disease named Mliaoidozis. The disease is characterized by symptoms very general include coughing, shortness of breath, weakness, fatigue and nausea. it is found mainly in South and southeast Asia: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Northern Australia, where the bacterium is sometimes found in soil or contaminated water sources.The Midwest of the United States is not really an area where this bacterium is expected to be encountered, and this may also be the reason it took a relatively long time to crack the source of the infection.

More on Walla!

Who puts cyanide in paracetamol?

A 40-year-old murder mystery

To the full article

Most often, when Americans are diagnosed with this bacterium, it is after returning from a trip abroad. But as mentioned, these cases began to emerge at the height of a global epidemic, when trips abroad were not really on the agenda, and indeed - none of the patients were abroad before it fell ill. , Nor any of his immediate family, so the question of the source of the infection remains obscure.

It took a while for the health authorities to link at all the cases of the disease, which arose in different and distant countries from each other in the USA. A patient is hospitalized (Photo: ShutterStock)

It also took time for U.S. health authorities to link the first cases, which emerged in different states and not necessarily close to each other. Public health warning "regarding the suspected cases. But they only recently discovered the source of the infection, and during this time another person became infected with the bacterium - 4 cases of infection in total, two of which ended in death.

Like investigating a criminal case

Such medical mysteries are investigated just like criminal cases - the CDC appoints a team of epidemiological researchers who try to track down the cases of the disease and the disease and understand what the connection is between them, hoping that the traces will lead to the source of the infection and can be stopped. The trail of evidence that investigators followed cooled and led to a dead end in Kansas. "It was really trial and error, that we had no clues that will lead us in a certain direction," said Dr. Jennifer Mkooiston, investigating epidemiological investigation was part of a team appointed by the CDC, network CNN in an interview.

"We looked for hygiene and care, lotions "Soaps, food products, vitamins - anything they may have been exposed to ... including cleaning products and all sorts of other things," said Dr. McQueston. "The thing with this bacterium is that it really needs a moist or wet environment to survive,"And it is able to survive in certain types of moisture that you would not expect bacteria to survive in normally - so we even tested hand sanitizers," she added.

Then, in July, another patient died of myeloidosis, this time in Georgia, and genetic tests linked the bacterium to the other three cases known so far.

That is, it was another infection from the same source.

CDC researchers pounced on the fresh hint and examined all items that could have contained the bacterium, and yet the smoking gun was not found.

"They tested a few hundred samples and it looked like we'd get to a dead end here, too," McQueston recalls.

The CDC investigates medical mysteries just like a criminal case - with a team of detectives-investigators.

Headquarters of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Photo: Reuters, no)

In a desperate and final effort, the investigation team returned earlier this month (October) to the home of the last patient discovered, to take another look.

"In the second search of the patient's home, the team took a sample of room perfume spray, which was not included in the samples taken in the first search, and this week came the positive results for the Burkholderia pseudomallei bacterium from the PCR test performed for this sample," she said.

Smells like a solution to a mystery

And if that sounds familiar to you, you're right - this is the same kind of test that duplicates the genetic material of the corona virus and allows it to be identified, only this time it did the same process with the genetic material of the suspected tropical bacterium. The culprit in the cases of infection and death was a bottle of Better Homes & Gardens Lavender & Chamomile Essential Oil Infused Aromatherapy Room Spray with Gemstones - a spray for perfuming rooms with a scent of lavender and chamomile with the addition of essential oils and precious stones. The spray is made in India and marketed at the Walmart chain.

"We were very relieved when we located the source of the infection, because our main concern was that whatever it was that caused the outbreak of the bacterium was still out there and could endanger more people," McQueston said. And they were not mistaken, as the infected spray was found in quite a few homes across the U.S. who did not suspect that a deadly bacterium was also hiding inside the fragrant bottle.

This is why the CDC decided to come out with this initial information immediately and publish it publicly, even before the results of the genetic sequencing came that unequivocally confirmed that the bacterium in the sample from the spray and the bacterium that killed the patient from Georgia have the same DNA. The CDC has already been genetically linked as well, so "we were able to connect point A to point B, and B to C - the results of the latest genetic sequencing, which we are now waiting for, will hopefully connect point A to C and close the circle. ", Concluded McQueen.

Patients infected with the bacterium apparently sprayed it on their pillow.

The perfume spray for the home that is to blame for the infection (Photo: official website, screenshot)

More on Walla!

• Not sex with a monkey: How did AIDS really reach humans?

• How did a young woman get a disease that had not been seen since the Middle Ages?

• More money in the account: Where is the most profitable to open a savings plan?

It is still unclear what components of the spray contained the dangerous bacterium, and how exactly it penetrated the patients' bodies, as the existing findings do not contain evidence of infection by inhalation through the airways. However, this option was not ruled out. "A lot of people said they sprayed the perfume on the pillow before going to bed to have a pleasant smell in bed - so you can understand people making all sorts of uses of this perfume beyond just spraying it in the room, uses that bring them into very close contact with its contents," McQueston explained.

CDC investigators will now make their way to the homes of the 3 previous infected and conduct a re-scan of their homes in search of the suspected spray.

McQueston warns, however, that they may never be able to connect all the ends of this bizarre story, given that many months have passed since the first infections.

"It could be that even if there was, the spray is no longer in their homes. We may not be able to make the connection to the cases of the patient from Kansas, who died of the bacterium more than half a year ago, and perhaps to the case from Minnesota it is too late. But in the case of the third patient. "Texas has another chance to find the spray, so researchers will start from there," McQueston said, noting that "we've heard that both the Minnesota patient and this one from Kansas used various perfumes and aromatic oils, so they have a history that fits that scenario."

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments