Impotence Treatment linked to Heart Infection

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Impotence Treatment Linked to Heart Infection

 

Thu Mar 3,11:47 AM ET

Health - Reuters

By Anthony J. Brown, MD

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The use of contaminated syringes to inject drugs for

impotence led to an outbreak of a serious heart infection in Israel caused by a

pathogenic mold, investigators report.

 

The outbreak of endocarditis, an inflammation of the tissue surrounding the

heart, was first detected when an 84-year-old man died of Phialemonium curvatum

endocarditis in March 2002. In reviewing his medical history, it was discovered

that he had been trained to self-inject drugs for impotence from prefilled

syringes into his penis. Testing of the patient's used syringes revealed them as

the source of infection.

 

An alert was put out to patients who had visited the impotence clinic where the

man had received the syringes. Ultimately, two more patients were diagnosed with

P. curvatum endocarditis. Testing of unused syringes and bottles provided to

other patients detected P. curvatum in four cases, and another mold,

Paecilomyces lilacinus in one.

 

" P. curvatum is emerging as a pathogen in immunocompromised, but this is only

the second report of an outbreak in non-immunocompromised hosts, " lead author

Dr. Jacob Strahilevitz, from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told

Reuters Health.

 

" Another key point is that P. curvatum goes against the dogma that molds do not

grow in blood cultures, " Strahilevitz said. " If this organism is found in blood,

it must be considered a true infection. "

 

SOURCE: Clinical Infectious Diseases, March 15, 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

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