OK…time to get back to work writing. A couple weeks of conference organizing and uncountable Ebola calls are hopefully winding down, so back to the neglected blog.

This bug is an obscure one that I write about regularly: Capnocytophaga canimorus. It’s found in the mouth of most dogs, so people are commonly exposed to it. It almost never causes a problem, but when it does, it’s bad. Capnocytophaga infections classically occur in people who don’t have a functional spleen, alcoholics or those who have a compromised immune system. We focus on education of these high-risk people in terms of avoiding exposure to dog saliva and good bite-management practices. But, as with most things in infectious diseases, there are very few true “nevers”, and there are sporadic reports of Capno infections in people who are (seemingly, at least) otherwise healthy.

Another report appeared in a recent volume of Infection, “A case of Capnocytophaga canimorsus sacral abscess in an immunocompetent patient “(Joswig et al. 2014). Long story short, this person developed an abscess in the sacrum (the bone at the base of your spine), with a pet dog being the presumed source. There was no obvious incident of exposure such as a bite, and the person had no apparent risk factors, so it’s an unusual case. The fact that it was an abscess and not an overwhelming systemic infection (as is often the case) is also unusual, and may relate to the fact that this person had a normal immune system that was able to prevent a rapid, life-threatening infection.

This report doesn’t really change anything, but it’s another example of how some of these potentially nasty infections that we associate mainly with high-risk people can also occur in healthy individuals. This doesn’t mean we should be paranoid of dog saliva, but we should be practically cautious. Avoiding contact with saliva, avoiding bites and proper bite first-aid are all basic measures that can presumably go a long way to helping prevent a wide range of infections.