Store attendant dies with 'pigeon disease' one day after diagnosis in Rio Branco: 'ungrounded'

Store attendant Sandra Silveira Bezerra, aged 49, died last Wednesday (15) in the Rio Branco Emergency Room with ‘pigeon disease’. The death certificate states that Sandra died of fungal meningitis, cryptococcosis, known as “Pigeon Disease”, cerebral endema and pneumonia.

Sandra had worked for over 12 years in a variety store on Rua Cel. Alexandrino, Bosque neighborhood, in the capital of Acre, where there is a constant presence of pigeons. The store owner even confirmed that she was diagnosed with the disease two years ago (find out more below).

g1 spoke to Sandra’s eldest daughter, Fábia Silveira Rodrigues, 31 years old. Still very shaken, Fábia said that her mother started to feel sick at the end of September with dizziness. In October, she started to feel very weak, coughing and having difficulty breathing.

Examination detected the presence of the Cryptococcus fungus in Sandra Silveira’s body — Photo: Reproduction

Sandra was taken to the Emergency Care Unit (UPA), had an X-ray and a spot was detected on her lung. It was then that the eldest daughter took Sandra to a pulmonologist for more specific tests.

“The specialist ordered a tomography and it showed that there was a lot of staining, which he didn’t know what it was, but it was treated as pneumonia. Associated with this, she started to have a lot of headaches, vomiting a lot and on November 5th we took her to the UPA of the 2nd District again where she was hospitalized. She had a lot of headaches, chest pains and continued taking medication at the UPA,” she recalled.

Sandra stayed at the 2nd District UPA until November 8th, when she was transferred to the emergency room. At the health unit, according to Fábia, they carried out a test for meningitis and the attendant started taking antibiotics.

“They only thought about bacterial and viral meningitis, they didn’t think about fungal ones. He took antibiotics, but there was no improvement. He went to higher dosages of antibiotics, the headache only got worse, and the infection was also very strong. It took a long time to find out. I went back several times. She also had changes in her vision. The doctor explained that due to the cerebral edema there was this change in vision, but that when it deswelled it would return to normal,” she said.

Sandra Silveira with her daughters, Fábia Rodrigues, 31, and Rebeca Silveira Lopes, 20 — Photo: Personal archive

Diagnosis

The correct diagnosis was only discovered last Tuesday (14), when Fábia took the results of the exam carried out on Sandra in the laboratory and presented it to the doctor on duty. The young woman says that she always suspected that her mother had pigeon disease due to the presence of birds near where she worked.

“A doctor arrived to visit and I said that I suspected the pigeon’s disease. He gave me authorization to go to the laboratory to get the test. I picked it up and took it to him. When he saw it, he said it really was pigeon disease. He said that cryptococcosis was found and I would take antifungal medication”, he explained.

Sandra was admitted to the PS for observation when the disease was discovered. To take the medication, she needed to be transferred to an upstairs ward. This transfer was made early on Tuesday night, but the attendant felt very ill and needed to be intubated.

“Her brain was very swollen, so she had a lot of headaches. If the tests had come out faster, I went to the laboratory to get the results. Where she worked there were a lot of pigeons, sometimes they would stay out front waiting to enter. She spent most of her time there. I’m still floored now that I can talk,” she lamented.

The owner of the store where Sandra worked, Ney Matos, was diagnosed with ‘pigeon disease’ two years ago, in São Paulo. At the time, he was transferred to the air ICU to the capital of São Paulo.

After an investigation by a medical team and a biopsy, the businessman discovered that he had the disease.

“I take very expensive medication, it is imported, I use oxygen and undergo treatment. I can’t catch the flu, pneumonia, Covid, because the problem is in the lungs. People have died on this street, others have gone blind and I’m sure there are a lot of people infected,” he added.

The businessman said that Sandra was an excellent employee and regretted the loss. “People here are against these pigeons, I’ve had this point here for 35 years. Sandra was a person everyone wanted to be around, she treated everyone with attention and affection,” he summarized.