Over in the UK, a 48-year-old guy who got a nip from a stray cat ended up catching some new kind of bacteria that scientists hadn't seen before.
And let me tell you, this guy's body didn't take it lightly. Just eight hours after the cat bite, his hands blew up like balloons, and he had to rush to the ER for some medical help.
From Science Alert:
His puncture wounds were cleaned and dressed and he was given a tetanus shot before being sent on his way with antibiotics.
A day later, he was back at the hospital. His pinky and middle fingers on his left hand were painfully enlarged and both his forearms were red and swollen.
Doctors had to surgically remove the damaged tissue around his wounds. He was also given three different antibiotics intravenously and was sent home with oral antibiotics.
This time, thankfully, the treatment worked and he made a full recovery.
Back at the hospital, however, doctors were busy trying to figure out what had happened. When they analyzed the microorganisms present in samples from his wounds, they found an unrecognizable Streptococcus-like organism.
Streptococcus is a genus of gram-positive bacteria that is linked to meningitis, strep throat, bacterial pneumonia, and pink eye, among many other ailments.
But when researchers sequenced part of this bacterium's genome, it did not match any strains on record. This was a new germ that scientists had never formally documented.
As it turns out, the bacterium belongs to another genus of gram-positive bacteria called Globicatella.
Full genome sequencing of the bacterium suggests that it differs from other related strains, like G. sulfidfaciens, by around 20 percent, indicating a "distinct and previously undescribed species".
Setting aside all the scientific jargon, this is seriously unsettling stuff.
It really makes you start to wonder what on earth this cat was up to in order to catch some mysterious bacteria like that.
