Florida Man Eats Feral Pig, Gets Hospitalized With Rare Infection

A Florida man’s hankering for feral pig landed him in the hospital. In a recent case report, doctors describe how the man likely contracted a serious and rare infection from swine meat he received from a hunter. Scientists and health officials in Florida detailed the porcine mishap this month in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The man endured multiple trips to the hospital and needed his chest implant removed before doctors identified what was making him sick: pig-derived bacteria called Brucella suis. Fortunately, once the bacteria was found, the man was successfully treated with the right mix of antibiotics. According to the report, the man was a pastor in his 70s who had a history of heart failure—a condition that necessitated an automated implantable cardiac defibrillator (AICD) device to keep his heartbeat steady. Starting in spring 2019, he developed chest issues that led to multiple hospital stays. His doctors at the time determined that some sort of infection had ta ... Read full article.