A little knowledge can be a bad thing. We see that with zoonotic diseases. Awareness is great. However, a little bit of awareness can be a problem if it’s enough make people paranoid but not enough to help them understand the real risks. This can lead to excessive and illogical responses (often ending with "…get
Rat bite fever in a person with HIV/AIDS
A recent report in the journal Infection (Chean et al. 2012) describes rat bite fever in a patient with AIDS. I’ve written about rat bite fever before, and it’s not really a surprising case report. Streptobacillus moniliformis, the bug that causes the disease, is found in the mouths of most rats (and
Watch out for rabbit pee
Urine from healthy animals is typically considered to be of little to no risk to people. This is generally true, at least for the otherwise healthy human population, but like with most things in infectious diseases, there are exceptions. An interesting one in rabbits is a bug called Encephalitozoon cuniculi. This microorganism (now classified
HIV/AIDS, kids and pets
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released updated Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections Among HIV-exposed and HIV-infected Children. A small but still important part of this document involves recommendations for contact with animals. It’s a nice, balanced document that acknowledges the risk but doesn’t make unnecessarily restrictive
Dietary indiscretion, HIV and dogs
A reader asked this question the other day:
"I was walking with my dog, when it got hold of a used condom. Is it possible that my dog got HIV or AIDS or something?"
The short answer is NO. Dogs cannot be infected by HIV, nor can dogs transmit the virus (although there
Pets and immunocompromised people
There was an interesting article in USA Today about the increasing recognition of the positive role that pets can play in patients recovering from serious disease, and how contact with pets can sometimes conflict with disease transmission concerns in these same patients. The attitude towards pet ownership among physicians is highly variable – some
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus – HIV/AIDS for Cats
Everyone is familiar with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) – the retrovirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in people. Although HIV can only infect humans and some primates, cats can be infected by a very similar virus from the same genus (Lentivirus) with a similar name – feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). The
HIV/AIDS and dogs
Here are a couple questions that I get periodically…
My dog licked someone with HIV/AIDS, and they had an open sore. Can my dog get HIV?
Can a dog that bites someone with HIV get infected?
If a dog bites someone with HIV then bites someone else right after, can it spread the virus?
The