A small scratch from a kitten appears to have set off a dangerous chain of events for a young woman living with a transplanted kidney. Doctors in China reported that the 33-year-old developed hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, a rare and potentially life-threatening immune overreaction, after the bacterium that causes cat scratch disease got into her bloodstream.
The newly published case report in BMC Infectious Diseases, from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, describes how routine tests failed to find the culprit. Genetic sequencing of her blood finally pointed to Bartonella henselae, and the patient then recalled being scratched by a kitten about a month before she fell ill.
