Posted on 06/19/2021 11:23:35 AM PDT by billorites
A southern Alberta couple who realized their infant had eaten raccoon feces found themselves racing against time to find a rare medication — and doctors and pharmacists across Western Canada mobilized to help them find it.
Ashley Haughton learned raccoon scat can be extremely dangerous when she found it in her yard in Lethbridge, Alta., and researched how to dispose of it safely.
Raccoons can carry a deadly form of roundworm called Baylisascaris procyonis, and the eggs live in their feces.
An extremely rare parasitic infection can occur if humans ingest the eggs, which hatch into larvae, travel through the body and invade organs, including the eyes and brain.
And so when her one-year-old son ate raccoon feces from a flower pot in the garden just over four weeks ago, Haughton knew to be alarmed: Symptoms of the infection include brain damage, blindness and coma.
It can also be deadly.
"They go through the stomach barrier, they infest your body ... and essentially eat you from the inside out," Jon Martin, the boy's father, told Calgary Eyeopener, a CBC Radio morning show, on Thursday.
"And if you don't treat them quickly enough, there isn't really a way to reverse the effects, because they've literally eaten your tissue." Health Canada gave special authorization
Martin and Haughton immediately called their family doctor and the province's Poison & Drug Information Service.
Both advised the parents to wait and see if their son — whom they didn't want to name in order to protect his privacy — developed symptoms of infection.
Instead, the parents sought to have the feces tested for roundworm, and their veterinarian confirmed the worst: The sample was infested with so many eggs and larvae that they were unable to count them all.
After rushing their son to a hospital emergency room, they were prescribed albendazole, which needs to be taken within three days of exposure.
Special authorization to write the prescription was given by Health Canada, as its manufacturer has not filed a drug submission in Canada, the department told CBC News.
"We started calling around ... to try and track it down and then soon realized that it wasn't available commonly at all," Martin said. 'I couldn't imagine being in that situation'
When Lethbridge pharmacist Bryce Barry got the call that Martin was looking for albendazole and why, he immediately understood the dire predicament.
"I've got young kids, and I couldn't imagine being in that situation," said Barry, who works at Shoppers Drug Mart in Park Place Mall.
But when he checked his suppliers, Barry realized he couldn't bring in the medication to his pharmacy. And when he discovered it's not commercially available in Canada, he started contacting his network. Bryce Barry, a pharmacist at Shoppers Drug Mart in Lethbridge's Park Place Mall, sprang into action when he got the call that Jon Martin needed albendazole for his son. Barry immediately started contacting other pharmacies for help. (Google Maps)
When a drug is not widely available, a compounding pharmacy can prepare personalized medications for patients by mixing individual ingredients together in the exact strength and dosage required.
Barry's friend, Dawson Bremner, had opened a pharmacy in Vancouver that had many suppliers outside of Canada and was doing a lot of compounding — and might be able to order, or make, albendazole.
Bremner couldn't do either, but instead he contacted his pharmaceutical representative, who mass-emailed clients across Western Canada.
It had not compounded the anti-parasitic formula in more than a decade, but it had the medication and the ingredients needed to make it into a palatable liquid.
"When we first got that email ... my technician took it very seriously," said Script co-owner and pharmacist Aleem Datoo. Pharmacist Aleem Datoo, co-owner of Script Pharmacy in Calgary, where the medication was made, says providing it was a 'total team effort.' (Script Pharmacy)
"[But] I don't think we had the full sense of how [serious] the situation was until a few weeks later, when our provincial college called and verified that [the feces] did have this certain parasite.
"That's when we really fully appreciated what had been done — but on our end, it had been a total team effort."
Martin and Haughton, meanwhile, were preparing to drive to Montana to get the drug when they learned the Calgary pharmacy could make it.
"It was one of the happiest phone calls I think you can get in a situation like this," Martin said.
"I mean, I kind of had a breakdown on the phone." 'Everybody came together'
Fifty-six hours after ingesting raccoon feces, Martin and Haughton's son received his first dose of albendazole.
And from the hospital doctors to the veterinarian to a chain of pharmacists, the collaboration between so many people to acquire the drug struck Barry as incredible.
"Everybody came together, and some of us had pretty small parts ... but we were proud to get it in time," Barry said. "And I thought it was pretty neat."
Alberta now a 'hot spot' for tapeworm that can cause fatal tumours in humans, study cautions
Since Martin and Haughton's son was exposed to roundworm four weeks ago, it means he is outside of the usual window for symptoms of infection to appear.
And according to Martin, he seems just fine.
"He's still doing all the wonderful things that the toddler is supposed to do," Martin said. "You can't really ask for much more."
Most shocking headline of the day, though I know little ones eat weird stuff they can reach...
This is why when we had kids, I made sure to order the non-retarded ones. Worked out well so far.
Soon to be a movie on the Hallmark Channel.
Jeeez lady, give the kid a large Snickers bar, and that’ll tide him over until dinner.
any parent who has a picky boy eater loves this commercial. one of the best ever.
and anyone with any sense at all knows that parents and doctors need to direct the health system. not the gov’t.
“He’s still doing all the wonderful things that the toddler is supposed to do,”
Heartwarming story. Now tell the parents not to use raccoon crap as ferilizer in their flower pots.
Lol.
Hey man, they were trying to keep the kid’s identity secret.
Did not know raccoons carry dangerous parasites like that. They now get double summary death penalty when I spot them.
Racoon poop is like toxic waste, stay away. I saw a documentary last year about a teenage boy who kicked a dead armadillo and contracted leprosy. He survived but is messed up.
Good story, good ending!
You mean they aren’t safe to eat? NOW they tell me!!!
Like a “House” episode. It was a good one.
I remember a lecture in Biology class about roundworms. According to the teacher, they used to be a problem in rural areas of the U.S. Kids would pick up the roundworm larvae from stepping barefoot on poopoo. The larva would enter through cracks between the toes. We saw pictures of people’s brains that had 5 or 6 cysts from those things. The people often exhibited bizarre behavior before being diagnosed. Very nasty.
Seemed more like a heartworming story to me.
The wormer I use for the dogs has fenbendazole as an ingredient which people are allegedly curing their cancer with. https://www.cancertreatmentsresearch.com/fenbendazole/
I say we need a Millennial Racoon Scat CHALENGE!!
It’s a nice story with a happy ending, but, I can’t imagine veterinarians in Canada do not have a drug readily available to treat these types of worms.
A National Health Service ghoul.
I’m confused by the “rare medicine” part.
I’ve had dogs given Albendazole as puppies several times and the vet just handed it to me out of his med cabinet.
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