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Doctors from Burgas saved a woman from a "man-eating bacteria

The one-month treatment of the patient exceeded several times the value of the clinical path

Oct 21, 2024 11:04 120

At UMBAL Burgas they saved a woman with a rare but extremely dangerous bacterium - Vibrio vulnificus, reports from the medical facility. If infected, sepsis can develop within hours and death can occur, which is why they are called “man-eating bacteria”. In Bulgaria, there are no records of a person surviving bloodborne infection. Last year, five deaths were reported in scientific publications in Tampa Bay, Florida.

This reminds me of "New TV".

The 61-year-old woman was on holiday at the Silistar campsite. He injures his leg on the lounger, but despite the open wound he enters the sea. The same day, the leg swells, large blisters appear, the temperature rises. He arrived at the hospital on duty of surgeon Dr. Todor Shuplev. “We established an infection. Surgery followed on the leg to prevent it from spreading. We also took a microbiological sample, he said.

Dr. Kalina Tsankova recognizes the cause immediately, although she has only seen him three times in her practice. “You can't go wrong. This bacterium is mobile, it is characteristic that it does not grow in an environment in which similar ones grow, she explains. An antibiogram was immediately performed, antibiotic treatment was started, which, in parallel with the surgical treatment, gave results, but not immediately.

The patient's one-month treatment exceeded the value of the clinical trail by several times. Medicines alone cost BGN 9,000, not counting other consumables, the ten operations, the work of doctors, nurses, and laboratory technicians. “When it is asked why public hospitals are in a bad financial state, this is one of the reasons. Every 3-4 months, we have one such patient who needs long-term treatment,”, the Second Surgery points out.

The case is now being described in a scientific publication and will be reported at a congress.