If I’m talking to veterinarians or veterinary students about infectious diseases and I mention Capnocytophaga canimorsus, I usually get a blank stare (or “capno-what?”). If I’m talking to physicians, it’s usually the same response, unless they’re infectious disease physicians or trainees (but I still get “capno-what?” from some of them on
The headline’s true, but a bit sensational. However, it’s from a recent paper that has attracted a lot of attention: Being licked by a dog can be fatal: Capnocytophaga canimorsus sepsis with purpura fulminans in an immunocompetent man (Mader et al. 2019).
This recent fatal Capnocytophaga canimorsus infection in a German man has gotten
Capnocytophaga questions keep coming in. I guess that’s good in some ways, because I usually get a lot of blank stares when I mention that bacterium. A recent article about the risks of Capnocytophaga and exposure to dog saliva includes some good information about the topic, but the statements below highlight some issues:
It’s important
Every couple of months there’s a news report about a person with infection caused by the dog-associated bacterium Capnocytophaga canimorsus. Most of these reports don’t get too much attention, but every once in a while they get picked up pretty widely, resulting in another round of questions about this strange bacterium. It’s a bit
A few sentences into a Washington Post article entitled “A dog bite sent him to the ER. A cascade of missteps nearly killed him”, I was thinking, “This sounds like a pretty typical Capnocytophaga canimorsus infection. I wonder if this guy lost his spleen earlier in life.”
It turns out that was true.
Every year or so, there’s a new wave of publicity/paranoia about the risks associated with dogs licking people. Often, it follows a study of bacteria that can be found in the mouths of dogs. It leads to a combination of balanced reports, sensational reports and defensive responses.
What is the concern?
Dog’s mouths are
Capnocytophaga canimorsus is a bit of an obscure bacterium. When I talk about it to veterinary or physician audiences, I’m usually met with blank stares – not surprising, since it’s not really mentioned in veterinary or medical school, from what I can tell. It’s a rare cause of infection, but a nasty one. The fact
OK…time to get back to work writing. A couple weeks of conference organizing and uncountable Ebola calls are hopefully winding down, so back to the neglected blog.
This bug is an obscure one that I write about regularly: Capnocytophaga canimorus. It’s found in the mouth of most dogs, so people are commonly exposed to
“Animal-loving grandmother died from rare infection after her pet dog licked her hand and bacteria spread into her bloodstream.” For me, the first thing I think of when I hear that is Capnocytophaga canimorsus (to which most people respond “Capno-whata cani-whatsis?”).
It’s a tragic but textbook example of what this common dog-associated bacterium
That’s a great title that I can’t take credit for. A colleague (and regular supplier of papers for blog posts) Dr. Stephen Page send me a paper from the Journal of Clinical Microbiology with a more convoluted title “The Capnocytophaga canimosus isolate that caused sepsis in an immunosufficient man was transmitted by the large pine
