Seal finger
Template:Infobox medical condition (new)
Seal finger, also known as sealer's finger and Script error: No such module "Lang". (from the Norwegian for "blubber"),[1] 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;Script error: No such module "Unsubst". it has also been contracted by exposure to untreated seal pelts.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". 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".[2]
Seal finger was first described scientifically in 1907.[3][4] It can cause cellulitis, joint inflammation, and swelling of the bone marrow; untreated, the course of "seal finger" is slow and often results in a thickened, contracted joint.[2] Historically, seal finger was treated by amputation of the affected digits once they became unusable.[4][5] Ariana Bindman, for SFGATE in 2023, reported that "for hundreds of years, fishers long feared contracting" it due to amputation. In the present day, seal finger is more commonly an "affliction among biologists, veterinarians and scuba divers".[5]
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.[2] However, as seal finger can be treated with tetracycline or similar antibiotics, the causative organism is most likely bacterial.[6] 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.[6][4] In 1998, Baker, Ruoff, and Madoff showed that the organism is most likely a species of Mycoplasma called Mycoplasma phocacerebrale.[6] This Mycoplasma was isolated in an epidemic of seal disease occurring in the Baltic Sea.[7]
Notes
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- ↑ 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
- ↑ a b c Seal Finger - An enigma and a challenge; State of Alaska Epidemiology Bulletin #17; published August 5, 1983; retrieved August 18, 2011.
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External links
- Working with Marine Mammals and Your Health, NOAA brochure on zoonoses, including seal finger. (requires Acrobat Reader (via archive.org))