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Truth about cats and dogs

Photo: K. Gopinathan

HYGIENE HELPS Wash often

Children should not allow themselves to be licked by pets, nor kiss them or let them into their beds, warns Ulrich Fegeler, spokesman for Germany's Professional Association of Children's and Young People's Physicians.

If a pet licks a child, he says, parents should immediately wash the spot thoroughly with soap and water to prevent possible transmission of Yersinia pestis bacterium as well as other pathogens.

In both animals and humans, Yersinia pestis bacteria can settle in the mucous membranes of the throat and nasal conchae, which are shelf-like protrusions on the walls of the nasal cavity.

“That's why they can spread so easily,” Fegeler says. “A large variety of animals can be infected without showing symptoms of disease.” The bacteria can cause blood poisoning, ostitis, pneumonia and meningitis and must be treated quickly with antibiotics.

Another bacterium sometimes present in the mouths of dogs and cats showing no signs of illness is Capnocytophaga canimorsus. In humans it can cause life-threatening infections such as gangrene, blood poisoning, meningitis and inflammation of the endocardium.

“Bites and large scratches should therefore always be treated by a paediatrician,” Fegeler says.

Strict family hygiene around pets — hands should be washed after every contact, for example — is not sufficient by itself, however.

In addition, pets should be examined regularly by a veterinarian, dewormed and kept free of fleas. Then, Fegeler says, there is nothing wrong with children having four-legged friends.

DPA

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