A Michael Broad Blog
A twenty-three-year-old man living in Belgium suffered from erectile dysfunction because he had been scratched by a cat at his home – that’s the diagnosis. We don’t know whether the cat belonged to him or somebody else. Importantly, we don’t know where the cat scratched him! It invokes an interesting image in one’s mind …
If you search Google for “cats on kitchen counters” you bring up a series of pages on how to keep cats off kitchen counters. That’s the default position. There is little discussion about why, on a scientific basis, cats should be kept off kitchen worksurfaces. Of course the reason is about hygiene. However, 35% …
A Japanese woman has died of a tick-borne disease believed to have been caused by bite from a stray cat. This is serious cat news from Japan. It is unexpected. It is perhaps the first case of this kind of mammal to human transmission. But it is not yet certain. It has been reported …
You may have read about this: a drug resistant bacteria (a Salmonella strain) has been detected in a cat. And they say it can be transmitted to people but (a) how did the cat acquire this bacteria (b) why is it drug resistant (c) how can it be transmitted to people – bacteria are …
A 70-year-old pensioner developed sepsis because she let her dog lick her frequently. The lady ended up in intensive care in hospital. She had multiple organ failure. She survived. She contracted a bacterial infection from her dog’s saliva. Bacteria, it is thought, in her dog’s mouth, had been passed to the lady when he …
You may well be aware that doctors in Florida have warned the public to steer clear of armadillos to avoid the possibility of being infected with leprosy. There has been a rise in human cases of Hansen’s disease (the alternative name for leprosy). It has struck nine people in Florida in the first seven …
This is a comprehensive article on zoonotic diseases and how to reduce infection. It is based upon a study by three scientists which has been published on the Internet but to see it you need to pay. The study is entitled: “Reducing the Risk of Pet-associated Zoonotic Infections”. I will refer to the domestic …
We should be aware that dogs could also cause cat scratch fever in humans. It sounds rather strange but it is true and I hope that this information takes some of the automatic blame away from the cat. You would have thought that with a name like “cat scratch fever” that the disease was …
