Welcome to another installment of Gizmodos Animal Crime of the Week.
Last week, we admired thetrash-stealing parrots of Australia.
This weird tale comes from acase reportpublished by Stanford University doctors last April.
A wild green iguana in Costa Rica.Image: Galyna Andrushko (Shutterstock)
A 3-year-old girl and her family were vacationing in Costa Rica.
Unfortunately, the iguana had actually given her something else.
Eventually, they confirmed that she had been infected by the bacteria Mycobacterium marinum.
M. marinum is a relative of the bacteria responsible for human diseases like tuberculosis and leprosy.
Its known to regularly make fish sick and to sometimes cause skin infections in people.
But previous human cases have all been linked to swimming or exposure to infected fish.
This story of grievous cake theft and bodily harm has a happy ending, at least.
Once the girl was prescribed combination antibiotic therapy, her symptoms and infection cleared up.
And the case provides an important reminder that there are many potentially dangerous germs lurking in unexpected places.
But manworst vacation ever.
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