Lena Mars is only four years old and has already learned an important life lesson.
Never get between an iguana and its cake.
The Mars family, from San Jose, California, was vacationing on the picturesque beaches of Costa Rica last May when the attack occurred.
Lena, then three years old, was eating cake when an iguana, which usually only goes for plants, bit her hand and ran off with her snack.
The bite gave her a bacterial infection, with a nodule nearly an inch in diameter growing over the following months.
While humans usually become infected with the bacteria, Mycobacterium marinum, through exposure to polluted water, medics believe this is the first case caused by an iguana.
The Mars family was enjoying a perfect family vacation in sunny Costa Rica when the iguana attacked. Pictured here is Lena along with her parents Julian and Luisa
The bite originally seemed to be healing well, but Lena’s parents later noticed a lump, a red and painful lump at the site of the wound
While Lena continues to recover, her mother Luisa hopes that one day the family will be able to laugh about it.
She told researchers, who will be sharing her case at an infectious disease conference later this month, “The wound is just closing and the whole healing process has taken more strength than the bite itself.
“Lena is the bravest kid we can imagine, and she’s handling the situation pretty well.
“She will probably never forget the experience, but we hope one day we can all laugh about what happened.”
After her first bite from the iguana, Leana was taken to a clinic in Costa Rica where her wound was cleaned. She was given amoxicillin as a precaution.
The antibiotics are a routine treatment for iguana bites because the animals are known to carry salmonella, another type of bacteria that can cause infections.
Initially, the bite healed well, without complications.
But five months later, and back in California, Lena’s parents noticed that a small bump had formed at the site of the bite, while the surrounding skin had turned red and mildly painful.
Medics at Stanford Children’s Health in California initially suspected that Lena’s nodule was a ganglion cyst, a relatively minor condition in which a fluid-filled sac develops near a tendon that usually resolves on its own without treatment.
But the unusual location of the lump and Lena’s other symptoms worried them, so they recommended that she have surgery in November to remove it.
Surgeons removed a 2cm mass from the site of the bite and noticed some pus – an indication of a possible infection.
Laboratory tests revealed the bacteria to be Mycobacterium marinum, known to cause a tuberculosis-like disease in fish.
An infection can occur in people with a scrape or cut that has been exposed to water contaminated with the slow-growing bacteria.
Symptoms, such as a skin lesion and swollen lymph nodes, can take months to develop.
Some infections heal on their own, while others require medication or surgery in severe cases.
Iguanas are native to the Americas and the Caribbean. A type of lizard, they are herbivorous, but can grow up to 2 meters in length (stock image)
Lena had to have surgery on her hand five months after the bit itself after developing a rare, and never before seen, bacterial infection. Here she is pictured with a post-surgery bandage next to her little sister Anna, who was born four months after the bite
While it is known to be more likely to infect humans, such an infection from an iguana bite has never been recorded and suggests that iguanas may both harbor the bacteria and pass it on to humans.
The lizards, which are found in Central and South America, as well as some Caribbean islands, can grow to about 2 meters in length.
Doctors noticed that Mycobacterium marinum is resistant to amoxicillin, the antibiotic Lena was originally given, so they prescribed a different type to clear further spores from her body.
Dr. Jordan Mah, an expert in medical microbiology from Stanford University, said the cold-blooded nature of iguanas could make them an ideal host for this type of bacteria.
He said, ‘M. marinum prefers lower temperatures (30C/86F) for optimal growth, and it is very likely that the cold-blooded iguana, with body temperatures ranging from 22 to 37C (72 to 81F), can sustain these microbes as reservoirs.”
Dr. Mah added that the case shows that iguanas can carry unusual bacteria that are harmful to humans, which could help medics treat similar cases.
A report on Lena’s case will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Copenhagen, Denmark, starting April 15.