Cowpox in humans is a rare zoonotic disease; its recognition is therefore problematic due to the lack of clinical experience. The differential diagnosis includes other poxvirus infections and also infections with herpesviruses or selected bacteria. The clinical course can be complicated and the improvement may take weeks. Late diagnosis is one of the causes of unnecessary combined antibiotic therapy or surgical intervention. A case of cowpox after a cat scratch in a 15-year-old girl is presented, with a summary of the available clinical data on cowpox infections.
REFERENCES(15)
1.
Damon IK. Orthopoxviruses: Vaccinia (Smallpox Vaccine), Variola (Smallpox), Monkeypox, and Cowpox. In: Mandell GL, Bennett JE, Dolin R, editors. Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett’s Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. Philadelphia: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier; 2010.p.1923–1932.
Durraffour S, Mertens B, Meyer H, van den Oord JJ, Mitera T, Matthys P, et al. Emergence of cowpox: study of the virulence of clinical strains and evaluation of antivirals. PLOS One. 2013; 8(2): e55808. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055808.
Czerny CP, Wagner K, Gessler K, Mayr A, Kaaden OR. Monoclonal blocking-ELISA for the detection of orthopox virus antibodies in feline sera. Vet Microbiol. 1996; 52: 185–200.
Nowotny N. Serologic studies of domestic cats for potential human pathogenic virus infections from wild rodents. Zentralbl Hyg Umweltmed. 1996; 198: 452–461.
Strenger V, Müller M, Richter S, Revilla-Fernandez S, Nitsche A, Klee SR, et al. A 17-Year-Old Girl with a Black Eschar. Clin Infect Dis. 2009; 48(1): 91–2, 133–4.
Pelkonen PM, Tarvainen K, Hynninen A, Kallio ERK, Henttonen H, Palva A, et al. Cowpox with severe generalized eruption, Finland. Emerg Infect Dis. 2003; 9: 1458–1461.
Haase O, Moser A, Rose C, Kurth A, Zillikens D, Schmidt E. Generalized cowpox infection in a patient with Darier disease. Br J Dermatol. 2011; 164(5): 1116–1118.
Czerny CP, Eis-Hübinger AM, Mayr A, Schneweis KE, Pfeiff B. Animal poxviruses transmitted from cat to man: current event with lethal end. Zentralbl Veterinarmed B. 1991; 38(6): 421–31.
We process personal data collected when visiting the website. The function of obtaining information about users and their behavior is carried out by voluntarily entered information in forms and saving cookies in end devices. Data, including cookies, are used to provide services, improve the user experience and to analyze the traffic in accordance with the Privacy policy. Data are also collected and processed by Google Analytics tool (more).
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.