Woman suffers severe vision loss after mysterious 'cat-scratch' infection
Josh Dutton
8 March 2021, 4:23 am
A woman has suffered “severe vision loss” after being around a number of cats.
The woman, 55, from New Zealand went to doctors complaining of “blurry vision and pain in the right eye” for a number of days, according to her case in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“An ocular examination revealed severe vision loss (she could only count fingers), a relative afferent pupillary defect, and reduced colour vision in the right eye,” researchers wrote.
Parts of the woman's eye were swollen which doctors put down to a bacterial infection. Source: NEJM
Doctors found a “swollen optic nerve” along with other issues suggesting the woman had bartonella infection.
“Bartonella henselae is the causative agent of cat scratch disease; in the current case, the patient had been exposed to cats but recalled no recent scratch,” researchers wrote.
The woman was given antibiotics and eye drops
Yahoo is now a part of Verizon Media
Josh Dutton
8 March 2021, 4:23 am
A woman has suffered “severe vision loss” after being around a number of cats.
The woman, 55, from New Zealand went to doctors complaining of “blurry vision and pain in the right eye” for a number of days, according to her case in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“An ocular examination revealed severe vision loss (she could only count fingers), a relative afferent pupillary defect, and reduced colour vision in the right eye,” researchers wrote.
Parts of the woman's eye were swollen which doctors put down to a bacterial infection. Source: NEJM
Doctors found a “swollen optic nerve” along with other issues suggesting the woman had bartonella infection.
“Bartonella henselae is the causative agent of cat scratch disease; in the current case, the patient had been exposed to cats but recalled no recent scratch,” researchers wrote.
The woman was given antibiotics and eye drops
Yahoo is now a part of Verizon Media
