Woman's disturbing side effect from taking antibiotics
WARNING – DISTURBING CONTENT: A car crash victim has developed an unusual side effect after taking antibiotics.
The 55-year-old woman had both her legs crushed in a motor vehicle accident and developed an infection, according to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The woman was treated with two antibiotics: meropenem intravenously and minocycline orally, but within a week she developed a strange side effect.
Researchers, Dr Yasir Hamad and Dr David Warren, said they found the woman’s tongue had grown “black hairs” as a result of the minocycline.
Luckily, the side effect wasn’t life-threatening and “is usually reversible”.
The study found “black hairy tongue” is characterised by hypertrophy and “elongation of filiform papillae”.
Filiform papillae are the little rough parts on the tongue.
Dr Hamad and Dr Warren added the woman’s condition can also be caused by poor oral hygiene, smoking tobacco, “irritating mouthwashes”, and the use of antibiotics including tetracycline, which is used to treat acne, syphilis and cholera.
The woman’s tongue returned to its normal colour four weeks after doctors took her off minocycline.
It’s not the only case of black hairy tongue either. In 2008, a 62-year-old man with known alcohol and tobacco abuse also suffered from it.
His case was presented in the American Journal of Medicine in 2011.
Last week, a 92-year-old Melbourne grandfather left doctors shocked when he survived a stroke with no side effects after it was initially feared he would be left permanently disabled.
Joseph Wisdom, from Narre Warren in Melbourne’s south east, was rushed to hospital after his partner Dorothy noticed his mouth drooping while they were out grocery shopping.
But doctors saved him using a procedure called endovascular clot retrieval, which involves reaching through the arteries to remove the clot from the brain.
In other medical news, a mysterious illness left 100 passengers sick on an Emirates flight from Dubai to New York last week.
It prompted an emergency response at JFK Airport, after a pilot reported that several passengers and crew members were complaining about having a flu-like illness.
The Emirates flight, arriving at 9.10am with 520 passengers, was swarmed by police vehicles and ambulances and immediately quarantined for an assessment by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
