Couple develops rare disease after beetles eating their furniture get mites

Enlarge / The common furniture beetle (Anobium punctatum). (credit: Getty | Schellhorn/ullstein bild)

A couple in France developed a rare, “almost forgotten” disease after the beetles munching on their furniture developed their own infestation of toxin-toting mites, according to a case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine by doctors in Marseille.

The man and woman, both 30 years old, turned up at an infectious disease clinic three days after developing an intensely itchy rash all over their abdomens. The cause may have easily gone undetermined if it weren’t for a telltale pattern of the woman’s rash—the itchy pink marks on her trunk had central dots with pink trails reminiscent of a comet.

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Author: Beth Mole. [Source Link (*), Ars Technica – All content]

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