Bacillinum

Sometime in the early 1990s, before the first attack on the World Trade Center, I was visited by a most anxious patient. It took only seconds to figure out what he did for a living when I saw his FBI badge and his Glock sidearm. He had been referred to me by a family friend who was a patient. Oscar was a member of the elite anti-terrorism unit based in New York. He came for treatment of an infection of his right arm. The persistent swollen lymph nodes throughout his arm and and armpit had not responded to antibiotic treatment. When the antibiotics failed to cure the infection, his doctor arranged to have one lymph node biopsied. The results revealed that Oscar had acquired an unusual infection. It was Mycobacterium marinum.