Ontario child hospitalized for over a month after mosquito bite | 24CA News
A Greater Toronto Area mom is hoping to lift public consciousness a couple of illness that’s not often transmitted by mosquitos. However, this comes after her younger little one was hospitalized for greater than a month after getting a mosquito chunk.
Kathryn McKissock by no means thought letting her six-year-old son play exterior of their Oshawa, Ont. residence may result in him growing a life-threatening illness.
“You always think that is never going to happen to you and it very much can,” McKissock mentioned.
“It happened not camping, not anywhere deep off in any woods. It happened with my son playing on a swing set in the backyard.”
McKissock tells Global News she seen a mosquito chunk on her son, Cameron, after Canada Day. She says they didn’t look out of the peculiar, however quickly after, he developed a fever and she or he seen he was turning into very torpid. His situation was worsening as the times handed.
“I just knew something was wrong,” the Oshawa mom mentioned.
“I knew it was more than just a virus. Really, I thought meningitis, but I thought people were going to think I was crazy.”
But McKissock’s intestine feeling proved to be true. Cameron was taken to SickKids, the place he underwent numerous assessments and acquired medical opinions from a handful of physicians.
“(Cameron) was poked and prodded at for a while. It was pretty scary,” she mentioned.
Cameron was ultimately identified with meningitis and encephalitis, often known as meningoencephalitis. The illness causes irritation of the mind and spinal wire. McKissock says medical doctors instructed her the illness was transmitted by a mosquito referred to as Jamestown Canyon.
“There are several different types of infections transmitted from different types of insects, usually ticks and mosquitos, that can cause meningoencephalitis,” mentioned Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious illnesses doctor on the University Health Network.
“Fortunately, they are very rare, but they can unfortunately be very severe infections and cause very significant symptoms.”
Although uncommon, McKissock says she desires the general public to know it’s potential. While her six-year-old has since returned residence after his hospitalization, the Oshawa mom stays in disbelief about the way it all transpired.
“I’m still even a month later trying to wrap my head around how did a mosquito do that? And how do you even parent something like that now?”
Dr. Bogoch says whereas there isn’t a strategy to absolutely forestall insect-transmitted infections, he recommends households cut back their danger by spraying themselves with bug spray once they go exterior and test them for ticks or mosquitos. He says folks can even put on long-sleeved clothes.
“We’re blessed with amazing summers in Canada. I really hope people go outside and enjoy these as much as possible,” he mentioned.
He provides folks ought to all the time search medical assist instantly in the event that they expertise signs like complications, fever, drowsiness or decreased ranges of consciousness.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
