If you like Reddit but don't currently follow the subreddit "Ask a Doctor" (r/AskDocs), you should—it's informative and also sometimes wildly entertaining (in a horror film close-your-eyes-but-peek-through-your-fingers kind of way). The community describes itself this way: "Having a medical issue? Ask a doctor or medical professional on Reddit! All flaired medical professionals on this subreddit are verified by the mods."
The most recent post that captured my full attention includes a question posed by a 32 year old man from Northern Ontario, Canada, who fell asleep on a mattress in his friend's living from and woke up to realize that he'd slept face directly on a dead bird. Apparently the friend's cat had dragged a dead bird onto his pillow while he was sleeping and, because he had lost his sense of smell from a COVID infection, he didn't notice the bird until he woke up. He believes he was sleeping near or on the bird for about four hours. His description is pretty horrific:
I was basically laying directly on it. Like my nose and cheek was touching its tail. There was small smears of blood on the pillow and a few speckles on my face, and feathers all over me, in my hair and beard, on my lips, the mattress, blanket, floor, everywhere.
After describing the scene, he asks his questions:
So I basically huffed a dead birds germs for four hours. Am I going to die of avian flu? Should I watch for specific symptoms? Go to a doctor now to get vaccinated for something?
The post currently has 54 comments, many from doctors saying that, yes, he could certainly contract any number of avian-borne infections from this encounter, including psittacosis, salmonella, chlamydia, West Nile virus, and more. Most cautioned him to not panic, but to try to safely package the bird and bring it to a doctor or a lab that specializes in tropical medicine.
If you want to read the entire saga, here's the thread. And check out r/AskDocs for more fascinating medical content.
