Recurrent Salmonella arizona infection after treatment for metastatic carcinoma

J Clin Gastroenterol. 1992 Mar;14(2):157-9. doi: 10.1097/00004836-199203000-00018.

Abstract

Serious Salmonella arizona infection may be acquired through the ingestion of rattlesnake meat used as a folk medicine remedy. We report a patient with metastatic carcinoma and a remote history of rattlesnake meat ingestion who developed recurrent S. arizona bacteremia and reactivation of tuberculosis after receiving corticosteroid and radiation therapy. Physicians should be aware of the potential for rattlesnake-associated S. arizona infection to occur as either the presenting manifestation or as a complication in immunosuppressed patients who may take folk remedies, especially Hispanics who live along the United States-Mexico border.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Combined Modality Therapy
  • Humans
  • Immunocompromised Host
  • Male
  • Medicine, Traditional*
  • Mexican Americans
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasms, Unknown Primary / therapy*
  • Recurrence
  • Salmonella Infections / etiology*
  • Salmonella Infections / immunology
  • Salmonella arizonae / isolation & purification*
  • Snakes / microbiology*
  • Tuberculosis / immunology