Rose Thorns
The Disease You Can Get From Rose Thorns
Rose thorns serve to protect the rose plant from other organisms that may wish to do the plant harm. While rose thorns are generally a nuisance for gardeners or florists because they create small painful wounds, there is a much more dangerous health effect that can result from a single prick from a rose thorn. This health risks comes from a specific type of fungus that often grows on rose thorns and can infect the human body when it is pricked by one. This fungus can turn a mildly painful prick into a serious medical condition.
Sporotrichosis
Sporothrix schenckii is a type of fungus that can grow on many types of plants including rose thorns. When the skin is punctured by a thorn, the fungus may come into contact with a person’s blood stream. If the fungus morphs into a yeast and spreads into the person’s lymphatic system, a serious infection of the lymph nodes can occur. This is referred to as a subcutaneous mycoses infection or Sporotrichosis. The resulting infection can cause nasty and painful lesions to occur on the skin in locations where there are lymph nodes. This condition is commonly called Rose-picker’s Disease. In rare cases the infection can spread to and affect the bones, lungs and joints of the patient.
Symptoms
While Sporothrix schencki grows on other plant materials such as hay, sphagnum moss and can be found in soil, it often affects people who work with roses frequently. This is because rose thorns present a substantial risk of producing cuts in the skin that the fungus can travel through. This particular disease is also hard to diagnose. This is because the symptoms usually appear several weeks after the fungus has entered the body. Most people do not connect their symptoms with a tiny rose thorn cut they received weeks back. The symptoms of Sporotrichosis usually include lumps and bumps on the skin. These lesions can appear where the initial cut occurred and where the lymph nodes run throughout the body. The lesions can be purple or pink in appearance but usually start small and with no pain. These lesions will also grow in size over time, and if not properly treated they can lead to the development of an ulcer. In severe cases where the infection spreads through many parts of the body, including bones and joints it can create a condition known as disseminated Sporotrichosis. In some cases disseminated Sporotrichosis can spread to the patient’s brain.
Diagnosing and Treating Rose-picker’s Disease
Diagnosing Sporotrichosis can be relatively hard to do, as the patient’s symptoms may be mild and antibodies within their blood can make testing hard. Usually to diagnosis this disease a doctor will perform a cell culture on some of the fungus found in the lesions. This disease is treatable. There are many medical antifungal drugs which can help the person fend off the infection. Severe cases may require surgical treatments, especially if the infection has spread to the bones or the lungs.
Avoiding Rose-picker’s disease may be hard to do for people who work around plants and soil materials every day. Wearing some form of protection such as gloves and long sleeves may help guard against infection. It is also wise to wash rose thorn wounds with water and soap to prevent infections. Keep a close eye on thorn wounds and cuts to watch for the development of an infection. It turns out that rose thorns are not just those annoying and painful parts of gardening with roses, but they also may contain a fungus that can cause some serious health effects.