It’s been a year since Pepper’s death, but now there are the results of the extensive investigation conducted by coroner Nigel Parsley. The infection caused blood clots. The coroner concludes that these arose after the mosquito bite.
Bacteria in bloodstream
On 7 July she reported to the hospital in Antwerp with her inflamed eye. The pilot was given antibiotics, but that did not help. Two days later, she was taken to hospital again by her boyfriend, where she died three days later.
–
–
It is unclear what kind of mosquito bit Pepper, but immunologist Rijkers does not expect that it was really the mosquito’s sting that caused the infection. He rather thinks that a bacterium that was already on the skin, got into her bloodstream by the mosquito.
Alcohol instead of the shot
It’s like this: “You have a lot of bacteria on your skin, most of them are good. But there can also be pathogenic bacteria present. If you get a hole in your skin through a rose bush, a needle or a mosquito, it can bacteria can enter. That is also the reason that you first clean the site of the injection with alcohol during a vaccination. That will not happen.”
–
–
In this case, it is therefore possible that Pepper had a pathogenic bacteria in her eye, after which the mosquito stings there and the bacteria entered the bloodstream. “The fact that the eye is so close to the brain also plays a role. This woman has had a lot of bad luck.”
‘Super rare’
The most important message for people at home in this case is that it is ‘super rare’, says Rijkers. “I don’t think this has ever happened in the Netherlands.”
Rijkers also does not want to rule out the possibility that it was a tropical mosquito that caused the infection. “There are thousands of species of mosquitoes, which can carry malaria or the Zika virus, for example. Antwerp has a harbor and it is possible that mosquitoes have come with them, but I don’t expect it.”
–
–
