Febrile illness after a beach day: a case of salmonella bacteremia from oral exposure to a sand dollar

This case report discusses a rare presentation of salmonella bacteremia after an oral exposure to a sand dollar in a pediatric patient. A 2-year-old Hispanic male presented to the emergency department with a chief complaint of diarrhea and fever for 8 days after a family trip to Destin beach, Florida, during the sea turtle nesting season. The symptoms began a day after the patient took a bite on a sand dollar found on the beach that caused a small wound inside his cheek. The laboratory testing done in the emergency department was remarkable for blood and stool culture testing positive for non-typhoid salmonella. The sand dollar is a type of a sea urchin commonly found on sandy beaches and consists of an anatomical filtration system to consume sandy water. It could be inferred that the increased presence of sea turtles during the time of the patient's visit to Destin beach could have led to higher levels of salmonella in the seawater and consequently in the sand dollar, possibly leading to the inoculation of salmonella in this patient. To the best of our knowledge, this is a first case report that links oral exposure of the sand dollar to invasive salmonellosis.