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

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

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

The latest edition of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)‘s publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports consists of the revised Guidelines for Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in HIV-Infected Adults and Adolescents.

Among the highlights relevant to pets:

  • HIV-infected patients should be advised to wash their hands after handling

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

Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most widespread zoonotic pathogens in the world. Toxoplasma is a protozoal parasite that can infect almost any warm-blooded animal, including humans. In most people and animals, infection doesn’t cause any illness at all, and after the initial infection, the body usually produces strong immunity which protects it from subsequent