"What? Kittens? They're the worst of the surprisingly deadly but adorable class? Those little fuzzballs who send swathes of the internet into barely coherent speech, and shrieks of girlish glee? Yup, that's right. Well, not just kittens, but something they carry: Toxiplasmosis. That's a parasitic disease that lives in many cats, which can get passed from mother cat to kitten, and, that's right, you guessed it, straight on to humans! You get it from contact with cats' feces, which is more or less inevitable, as you're the one cleaning out their crap. If you catch it, you'll most likely just get flulike symptoms, and feel better after a week. Unless, of course, you're immuno-compromised. Say, you're pregnant, HIV+, on chemo, just had an organ transplant, something fun like that. Then you get inflammation of the brain, scarring of the eyes, and—occasionally—horrific skin lesions. If you get through this all okay, scientists are just beginning to realize that Toxiplasmosis plays a part in schizophrenia, so it'll even drive you mad. And your cat almost certainly has it."
more here
No comments:
Post a Comment