Doctors have discovered a previously unidentified bacteria that caused an unusual heart infection in a 55-year-old man.
A man of 55 years was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital in London after presenting a worrying fever, headaches, back pain, vomiting and abnormal weight loss. Through blood tests and imaging tests, doctors were able to diagnose him an unusual heart infection caused by a new species of bacteria hidden in his aorta, the artery that carries blood from the heart throughout the body. Oxygenated blood from the heart could no longer be properly distributed. This strange bacteria could not be identified by conventional analytical laboratories. The researchers had to use a “nanopore sequencer”, a tool allowing the DNA of a germ to be analyzed very quickly. The results showed that this new strain was part of the Variovorax family, a group of bacteria typically found in soil and fresh water, but never in humans. “It’s about first case (and the only one known at the moment, editor’s note) of this Variovorax causing human pathology”, they write in their work published January 21 in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. At the patient’s request, this new strain was named Variovorax durovenensis, from the Latin name of the town where he came from, Canterbury.
A ruptured aneurysm a few months before
The patient being a shepherd who took care of 60 sheepdoctors suggest contamination of animal origin. “Further investigation suggested the patient became infected during lambing season or by giving the sheep anti-parasitic drugs, which was done without gloves“, explains Lara Payne, lead author of the study. According to the report, the man suffered from a chronic dermatitischaracterized by skin irritations “which probably served as a gateway for environmental pathogens”. He had done a few months before a ruptured aneurysmrequiring the placement of a stent andimmunosuppressive treatment, which made it more vulnerable, according to scientists. The authors note that the “atypical infections” caused by environmental microbes are increasing, particularly in patients on immunosuppressive treatment. “Be able to easily identify unusual or new species of bacteria in hospital laboratories can identify infections more quickly and provide patients with more targeted treatments“, they conclude. The man was able to be treated with appropriate antibiotics and out of trouble.