14 Jul '14

New bacterium discovered in Flemish patient

Summary

Scientists in Roeselare have found a new bacterium in the blood of a patient with no other history of illness

 

Rare discovery

The laboratory for clinical biology of the AZ Delta hospital in Roeselare, West Flanders, known as the Ardolab, has discovered a new disease-causing bacterium. The Atopobium deltae bacterium was found in a wound and the blood of a patient with a very serious skin infection. The research laboratory for bacteriology of Ghent University helped analyse the bacterium.

The discovery of a new bacterium in itself is not so exceptional. “But new bacteria are mostly found on plants or animals or in very specific biological environments like deep-sea waters,” microbiologist Steven Vervaeke of AZ Delta told De Morgen. “Most bacteria are harmless for a normally healthy person; scientists don’t often find a new bacteria that can immediately be linked to an infection.”

What makes the discovery even rarer is that the bacterium was found in an otherwise perfectly healthy patient without a history of illness. Most harmful new bacteria are found in weak patients with a badly functioning immune system. The patient with the bacteria was able to leave the hospital after about two months.

The data of the Atopobium deltae has now been included in different databases, making it easier to track down in the future.

Photo: IngImage 

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