[Gpdd] [HEALTH] <salmonella from guinea pigs and other rodents>
Lydia G Boland
lydiagboland at yahoo.com
Thu May 5 20:48:39 EDT 2005
My Mom just called me with concern because there was a news story on
her local CBS station about kids getting sick from their pocket pets
with bacteria resistant salmonella. Her concern is that many people
will start dumping their pets off at the shelters and they will not be
able to find homes for them. She knows we've never been sick from our
pets, ever. Here is a copy of the story and a link to it. Hopefully
our shelters and rescues will not be inundated with of our small
friends =(.
Lydia
http://cbs5.com/health/health_story_125132159.html
CDC: Don't Kiss The Hamster
Health Officials Issue 'Pocket Pet' Warning
May 5, 2005 11:56 am US/Pacific
(AP) Furry “pocket pets” like hamsters, mice and rats have sickened up
to 30 people in at least 10 states with dangerous multidrug-resistant
bacteria, health officials are warning.
It is the first known outbreak of salmonella illness tied to such pets
and reveals a previously unknown public health risk, officials said.
Many of the victims were children; six were hospitalized for vomiting,
fever and severe diarrhea. Some passed the illness to others. The germ
they had was resistant to five drugs spanning several classes of
antibiotics.
“This is likely an underrepresentation of how large the problem is,”
because others who were sick may not have gone to doctors and not all
labs do the kind of tests that would detect this germ, said Dr. Chris
Braden, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Salmonella infections are common from reptiles, especially small
turtles called red-eared sliders that are banned but have made an
illegal comeback in several states in recent years. The 2003 monkeypox
outbreak that originated in imported African rats and spread to U.S.
prairie dogs showed the risks of owning exotic pets.
But cuddly little pocket pets like hamsters were not thought to pose
much of a problem.
Gerbils, guinea pigs, ferrets and rabbits could also carry the germ,
the CDC said.
“This outbreak highlights the fact that there is no perfectly safe pet.
Parents and children should wash their hands thoroughly after contact
with any pet”—even the family dog, said Dr. Stephen J. Swanson, a CDC
epidemiologist working in the Minnesota Department of Health.
CDC started investigating last summer after Minnesota officials found
the unusual infection in a 5-year-old boy sickened after playing with
and kissing a pet mouse that had severe diarrhea and later died.
Tests showed that both had a drug-resistant strain of salmonella, a
relative of the germ that causes typhoid fever. The same strain was
found in a 4-year-old boy hospitalized in South Carolina and in his pet
hamster, which also died.
Officials then checked PulseNet, a national germ reporting database
designed to detect unusual trends, and found 28 other cases from
December 2003 to October 2004.
Of the 22 people they have been able to interview, 13 had contact with
rodents bought from pet stores and two caught salmonella from others
who were ill. Seven had no known contact with rodents; investigations
are continuing on the rest.
Cases have been confirmed in Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey
and North Carolina.
Diarrhea is common in rodents, and many animal dealers routinely use
antibiotics to prevent this. Such use may have spurred this
multidrug-resistant strain to emerge, health officials speculate.
But not all of the animals in this outbreak were sick, so people should
not think healthy ones don’t carry the bacteria, Swanson said.
“We only looked for this particular strain. There may be other
salmonellas that may be linked to pocket pets,” Braden added.
Dr. Robert Tauxe, chief of foodborne illness at CDC, said detecting an
outbreak like this would not have been possible before PulseNet, a
system he helped start in 1996. It was expanded nationwide in 2001.
“With great luck, a case of illness in Minnesota might have been linked
to one hamster and that would have been the end of it,” Tauxe said. “We
would never have been able to identify it as a nationwide problem.”
In light of the outbreak, CDC recommends:
People should wash hands well after handling rodents, their cases or
bedding.
Doctors should consider pets as a source of drug-resistant salmonella
in patients with severe diarrhea.
Veterinarians should do the same when treating rodents, and should test
for it if clusters of such animals offered for sale are sick.
Pet shops and dealers should sanitize transport containers and cages
between uses.
Owners should not kiss their pets or hold them close to their mouths;
pets should be kept away from kitchens and food.
(© 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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