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03-22-2006, 06:05 AM | #1 |
YT Addict Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 257
| Pet-Human Link Studied in Resistant Bacteria Pet-Human Link Studied in Resistant Bacteria By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN ATLANTA, March 21 — Antibiotic resistance has long been an important human health problem. But now it is also showing up in a small but growing number of pets in this country, Canada and Europe, scientists and federal health officials said on Tuesday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases here. The health officials said they did not want to sound too loud an alarm. But they said they wanted to learn more about the problem that has developed involving the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, the most common cause of staphylococcal infections among people. The same genetic strains of S. aureus have been found among human and animal cases, suggesting a connection. Dr. Nina Morano, an official of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here, said at a news conference that the problem was serious enough that her agency was adding questions about exposure to dogs, cats and other pets in large studies intended to determine their role in human staphylococcal infections. Dr. Shelley C. Rankin, a microbiologist at the Ryan Veterinary Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania, said she suspected that the frequency of disease transfer between pets and humans was extremely low, far less than 1 percent. On Tuesday, Dr. Rankin reported on S. aureus isolated from 38 animal cases at her hospital from 2002 through 2005. She said six of the cases "almost certainly were infected" at her hospital, the world's largest veterinary hospital. An additional 12 cases might have been infected there, she said. After S. aureus among humans developed resistance to penicillin many years ago, doctors prescribed another antibiotic, methicillin. But S. aureus infections soon became resistant to methicillin. Now methicillin-resistant staphylococcal infections lead to more than 125,000 hospitalizations a year in the United States, epidemiologists at the centers have reported. The bacteria can cause the same variety of problems in animals and humans, including skin infections, abscesses, joint infections and death. The infections can be difficult to treat, raising concern about the potential for animals to serve as sources of infection among their human contacts. "The question on everyone's lips is, Where is it coming from?" Dr. Rankin said in an interview. "Probably it is not an owner patting Fluffy on the head," he said. The questions that epidemiologists at the centers are adding to continuing studies are aimed at determining the source of such infections. Are some people acquiring the antibiotic-resistant staphylococcal infections from pets? Or are pets being infected from exposure to people? If so, how often are each occurring? In either case, the staphylococcal bacteria may be cycling among humans and pets. Staphylococci are commonly found on human skin and in the nasal passages, but much less so on animal skin, Dr. Rankin said. Methicillin-resistant staphylococcal infections have been found among horses, and outbreaks have occurred in equine hospitals. But no cases of infection among horses have been linked to people, Dr. Morano said in an interview. Veterinarians have reported cases among dogs after they underwent a limb amputation and other kinds of surgery. In Canada, two 6-month-old kittens with runny noses appeared to be the source of infection among a technician in a veterinary clinic and the kittens' owners. The pet and human cases are "a disturbing situation" because they complicate control of methicillin-resistant staphylococcal infections, a team headed by Dr. J. Scott Weese from the University of Guelph in Ontario wrote in the journal Veterinary Microbiology this year. One possible explanation for the apparent increase in S. aureus among pets is the advanced state of veterinary medical care in which sick animals that would have died some 15 years ago can now be kept alive. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/22/he...=1&oref=slogin
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03-22-2006, 06:12 AM | #2 |
Princess Poop A Lot Donating Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Colorado
Posts: 6,728
| This is pretty scary stuff - it brings to mind "Bird Flu" and "Mad Cow" and we all know what happens to these animals.
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