Seal finger

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Seal finger
Other namesspekkfinger, salen i fingret (Norwegian); salrota (Baltic languages) ('in the Gulf of Finland') [1]
Specialty Infectious Disease
CausesContact with seals or other pinnipeds
TreatmentLarge doses of antibiotics, including tetracycline; previously amputation

Seal finger, also known as sealer's finger and spekkfinger (from the Norwegian for "blubber"), [2] is an infection that afflicts the fingers of seal hunters and other people who handle seals, as a result of bites or contact with exposed seal bones;[ citation needed ] it has also been contracted by exposure to untreated seal pelts.[ citation needed ] The State of Alaska Section of Epidemiology defines it as "a finger infection associated with bites, cuts, or scratches contaminated by the mouths, blood, or blubber of certain marine mammals". [3]

Seal finger was first described scientifically in 1907. [4] [5] It can cause cellulitis, joint inflammation, and swelling of the bone marrow; untreated, the course of "seal finger" is slow and results often in thickened contracted joint. [3] Historically, seal finger was treated by amputation of the affected digits once they became unusable. [5] [6] Ariana Bindman, for SFGATE in 2023, reported that "for hundreds of years, fishers long feared contracting" it due to amputation; in present day, seal finger is more commonly an "affliction among biologists, veterinarians and scuba divers". [6]

The precise nature of the organism responsible for seal finger is unknown, as it has resisted culturing because most cases are promptly treated with antibiotics; [3] however, as seal finger can be treated with tetracycline or similar antibiotics, the causative organism is most likely bacterial. [7] In 1991, there was the first reported association of Mycoplasma with seal finger following a trainer sustaining a seal bite at the New England Aquarium. [7] [5] In 1998, Baker, Ruoff, and Madoff showed that the organism is most likely a species of Mycoplasma called Mycoplasma phocacerebrale. [7] This Mycoplasma was isolated in an epidemic of seal disease occurring in the Baltic Sea. [8]

Notes

  1. White, Colin P.; Jewer, David D. (Winter 2009). "Seal finger: A case report and review of the literature". Canadian Journal of Plastic Surgery . 17 (4): 133–5. doi: 10.1177/229255030901700415 . PMC   2827281 . PMID   21119845.
  2. Seal Finger, from Alaska Science Forum (article #335), by T. Neil Davis; published August 24, 1979; archived at the University of Alaska Fairbanks; retrieved August 18, 2011
  3. 1 2 3 Seal Finger - An enigma and a challenge; State of Alaska Epidemiology Bulletin #17; published August 5, 1983; retrieved August 18, 2011.
  4. Rodahl, Kåare (December 1952). ""Spekk-Finger" or Sealer's Finger" (PDF). Arctic . 5 (4): 235–40. doi:10.14430/arctic3915. JSTOR   40506548. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 August 2019. Retrieved 18 August 2011 via the University of Calgary.
  5. 1 2 3 White, Colin P; Jewer, David D (2009). "Seal finger: A case report and review of the literature". The Canadian Journal of Plastic Surgery. 17 (4): 133–135. doi:10.1177/229255030901700415. ISSN   1195-2199. PMC   2827281 . PMID   21119845.
  6. 1 2 Bindman, Ariana (March 24, 2023). "'Friendly' seal bites San Francisco man, sends him to hospital". SFGATE . Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 Baker, Ann Sullivan; Ruoff, Kathryn L.; Madoff, Sarabelle (November 1998). "Isolation of Mycoplasma Species from a Patient with Seal Finger". Clinical Infectious Diseases . 27 (5): 1168–70. doi:10.1086/514980. JSTOR   4481672. PMID   9827264.
  8. Westley, Benjamin P.; Horazdovsky, Ryan D.; Michaels, Dina L.; Brown, Daniel R. (8 October 2015). "Identification of a Novel Mycoplasma Species in a Patient With Septic Arthritis of the Hip and Seal Finger". Clinical Infectious Diseases . 62 (4): 491–3. doi: 10.1093/cid/civ875 . PMID   26449564.

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