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A severe pain in one man ’s artificial hip marijuana cigarette turned out to be because of an extremely rare bacterial contagion , according to a new news report of the human ’s case . But doctors are still puzzle as to how the man got the contagion in the first lieu .

The 77 - year - old man ’s correct contrived hip articulation was infect with the bacteriumFrancisella tularensis , which is responsible for for a disease called tularemia , according to the case account , issue Oct. 11 in the journalBMJ Case Reports .

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yatobyo is also do it as " rabbit pyrexia " or " deer fly fever , " because the bacterium can be scatter by wield an infected rabbit or being bitten by a cervid rainfly . It can also be spread by check mark bites . But in the humankind ’s case , it ’s not exclusively vindicated how he pick up the contagion . [ 10 Bizarre Diseases you may Get Outdoors ]

" We did not find any ticks attach to his peel , although it ’s potential he may have had atick biteor exposure in another form , " say lead author Dr. Harsh Rawal , an internal medicine resident at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana - Champaign . Rawal was one of the doctors who treated the man .

The man did n’t remember being bitten by a check , and he had no ducky that may have express one into his habitation , according to the report . He also had no contact with any fauna that could have transmitted the infection to him .

rabbit

The man did tell the doctors that he had been ahunterabout 50 years ago — some people may get the disease by handling or skinning infected rabbits , muskrats , prairie click and other rodent , according to the CDC — but , founder his long absence from hunt , this would n’t explain how he acquired the transmission five decades after .

A pain in the hip

After having severe pain in his right-hand hip for about a calendar week , the humanity drop dead to the emergency way , accord to the account . At the time , he said he was concerned because 25 years earlier , he had a totalhip replacementdone on this hip and an artificial rosehip juncture was inserted .

His doctors decided he needed surgery to renovate his unreal hip joint and drain fluid from the orbit , but they detect no grounds of any infection .

But one week after bequeath the hospital , the piece returned to the emergency way with right hip pain and a febricity of 100.6 grade Fahrenheit ( 38.1 degree Celsius ) .

Researcher examining cultures in a petri dish, low angle view.

It was then that the doctors noticed a bulbous pelt wound on one of his shins , consort to the report , so they send off the man for blood tests and lab cultures once again .

This prison term , the mental testing revealed that the man was infect withF. tularensis .

Although he had lack many of the common symptoms oftularemia — such as swollen   lymph node , tender throat , coughing , trouble breathing or eye irritation — the pelt lesion on his shin was a telltale house of the most common form of the disease , called ulceroglandular yatobyo . In this form , mass germinate a skin ulcer where the bacterium come in the body , andlymph nodesnear the ulcer become swollen .

an image of a person with a skin condition showing parasites under their skin

The cutis lesion had been present on the man ’s leg for almost a year before his rose hip joint became infected , Rawal tell Live Science .

Although it is difficult to nail the exact location the organism may have entered the man ’s eubstance , Rawal allege he suspects it was probably the area where the hide lesion developed . No other joints besides the artificial hip joint reefer became infect , he said .

A very uncommon infection

An contagion with this type of bacterium in an artificial articulation is very uncommon , Rawal said . In fact , this is only the second account grammatical case in the medical literature of a prosthetic joint becoming infected withF. tularensis , the case account authors write . [ Here ’s a Giant List of the Strangest Medical Cases We ’ve Covered ]

And bacterial infections in artificial pelvic arch joints in universal rarely , if ever , fall out , Rawal said . When they do occur , the likely culprits are the organismsStaphylococcus aureus , which give rise toMRSA(methicillin - resistantStaphylococcus aureus)infections , orstreptococcusor pseudomonas species , he order .

The man did not need to have another surgery to remove his infect prosthetic articulation , Rawal said . or else , he took unwritten antibiotics for about a year to treat the infection .

A multi-colored microscope image of tissue infected with nocardiosis. The image is mainly pink and purple in color.

Fortunately , the treatment worked : His skin lesion healed , his hip pain go aside and he had no further symptoms of the bacterial transmission .

Originally bring out onLive Science .

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