Your patient is a 54-year-old male who has recently completed a round of chemotherapy following successful surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his colon. He complains of a stiff neck, severe headache, and chronic nausea. On taking a history of recent events, you discover his hobby is to race homing pigeons. You suspect meningitis and order a lumbar puncture to sample the spinal fluid, which you negatively stain. The results are shown here. A nitrate assimilation test on the sample was negative, and there was pigmentation on birdseed agar when cultured.How did the patient contract this form of meningitis? Multiple Choice He contracted it during his chemotherapy treatment. He inhaled the fungal spores present in pigeon droppings; his recent chemotherapy rendered him susceptible. He picked it up as a healthcare-associated infection in the hospital. Colon cancer can lead to this severe form of meningitis.