A man unwittingly picked up a parasite, and years later, it triggered a throat infection.
A large, snow-white ulcer swelled up on the dangly tissue at the back of a man's throat, but doctors couldn't immediately explain why. It turns out that a single-celled parasite was the culprit, and it had likely been hanging around the man's body for five years.
An initial round of antibiotic and antifungal treatment didn't work, and the man's symptoms worsened over the following two weeks. Searching for the infection's cause, the doctors tested the patient for COVID-19; the viral disease mononucleosis, or"mono"; and group A Streptococcus, the bacteria behind strep throat. All of the tests came back negative. Then, they took a tissue sample from the man's throat.
Five years prior, he'd traveled to Guyana, in South America, and subsequently sought medical treatment for multiple small lumps that had grown beneath the skin of his neck. At the same time, he also had a larger, 1.6-inch bump that indicated a deep infection of the skin. At that time, the man tested negative for disease-causing fungi and bacteria, and after antibiotics failed to treat the bumps, doctors surgically removed the largest nodules. The smaller ones resolved on their own.
Humans can contract L. braziliensis through the bites of infected sand flies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . The parasites live in the tropics, subtropics and Southern Europe, and the CDC advises travelers to take measures to avoid sand fly bites while visiting affected locations.
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