Woman's Deadly Infection Linked to Horse Riding.

An elderly woman in Seattle died from an infection that she appears to have contracted from a horse she rode, according to a new report. The report is published in the Aug. 5 issue of the journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 71-year-old woman had visited her daughter, who operates a horse boarding and riding center in King County, Washington. In the week of Feb. 21, 2016, one of the horses developed nasal and eye discharge, suggesting the animal had an infection. The daughter treated the horse with antibiotics, and the animal recovered. The daughter developed a mild sore throat and cough, that same week and her mother also showed symptoms of an upper respiratory infection. Both the mother and daughter had been in close contact with the horse, with the mother petting and riding the horse on at least two days, Feb. 25 and 29. A few weeks later, on March 2, the mother experienced vomiting and diarrhea, and was later found unconscious. She was taken to the hospital, but died on March 3. Officials collected a nasal swab from the previously sick horse, along with a swab of the daughter's throat and samples of the mother's blood. All three samples tested positive for the same strain of bacteria, called Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus (or S. zooepidemicus for short.) This type of bacteria is known to infect animals, including horses, pigs and cats. It's rare that people get sick from S. zooepidemicus, but When infections in people do occur, they can cause a variety of symptoms, including chills, weakness, difficulty breathing, fever, kidney inflammation and arthritis. People can become infected with S. zooepidemicus by consuming unpasteurized dairy products, but the daughter said that she and her mother hadn't consumed any unpasteurized dairy products, nor did they have contact with other animals, except one healthy cat. The findings from this investigation linked a fatal S. zooepidemicus infection to close contact with an ill horse.The mother may have been at increased risk for infection because of her age. It also remains unclear if the woman's respiratory symptoms preceded or followed her infection with S. zooepidemicus. (It's possible that the respiratory symptoms were from a separate infection, which in turn could have made the woman more vulnerable to S. zooepidemicus, the report said.) Doctors always advocate that people thoroughly wash their hands after contact with horses or other animals.#hygiene #hand washing # #soap and #water. culled from Live Science.