A Novel Cowpox Infection With Troubling Connotations

     A case report published in the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Disease Journal this month detailed a rather odd-case of cowpox in 2016. An unidentified patient was injured in the thorax by a sharp, metal guardpost that had previously been buried. Despite having no contact with domestic or wild animals, the patient began to present with symptoms of a severe cowpox infection, including skin irritation, mild-hepatitis, wound inflammation, and the signature pustules of poxviruses. However, the most surprising part of this cases is that the patient was previously vaccinated against smallpox. The implication, that an environmentally resistant strain of cowpox has by some means become vaccine resistant, is startling.

     The patient recovered after a 9-month treatment process, but this case is especially alarming in the context of other unusual poxviruses spreading throughout the world, including monkeypox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with an 11% fatality rate, and pathogenic vaccinia outbreaks in Brazil and India. Only time will tell if these disparate outbreaks will begin to present a more pressing health concern.
-J. Cole Holderman- Strictly Better TA than Alexandra (who assisted with the production of this article)

The Paper: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/2/17-1433_article