MAN CONTRACTS RARE BLOOD INFECTION FROM DOG
Milwaukee ( US): A Wisconsin man was preparing for additional surgeries after having part of his legs and forearms amputated because of a dog lick that led to a rare blood infection, his wife has said.
Greg Manteufel, 48, has been hospitalised since late June, when he went to a ilwaukeearea hospital with flulike symptoms.
He was in good spirits despite having undergone seven surgeries so far, his wife, Dawn Manteufel, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
She said her husband was heading into the operating room again on Thursday and still had three more surgeries to go, but that he has looking forward to being fitted for prosthetic limbs.
“He’s happy to be here. He said he didn't come this far to cry about it and say, Why me?” she said.
Her husband was diagnosed with a blood infection caused by capnocytophaga, bacteria that is common in the saliva of cats and dogs but almost never leads to illness, said Dr Silvia Munoz- Price, an epidemiologist with Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin, where Manteufel is being treated. The doctor said animal lovers have no need to panic: They’re more likely to die in a car accident than to be infected by the bacteria.
“It’s extremely rare. Do not get rid of your pets. Continue behaving the same way that you have behaved with your pets up until now,” Munoz- Price said.
Dawn Manteufel said her husband's symptoms began on June 26, with a fever and pain in his legs. But then he started experiencing delirium, and bruises and blemishes developed during the short car ride to a hospital in West Bend, Wisconsin, where he was treated initially, she said.
The infection caused Greg Manteufel's blood pressure to drop and circulation in his limbs to rapidly decrease, hich in itself isn’t unusual for blood infections, Munoz- Price said.
The infection was quickly cleared with antibiotics, but the problem in Manteufel’s case “was that his body mounted an overwhelming response to this original blood infection and he shut down the circulation of his limbs,” the doctor said.
Doctors first amputated Manteufel’s legs, just below the knee. His forearms were amputated two weeks later.