A family kept getting strep throat. The culprit? Their pet cat.
When Dan Levitis, his wife, Iris, and their three young children trooped into a Madison, Wisconsin, urgent care clinic around 8 a.m. on New Year's Day 2018, the staff didn't seem surprised to see them. The family had sought treatment several times in the previous two months for recurrent strep throat infections.
They had taken multiple rounds of drugs, professionally deep cleaned their home and replaced contaminated toothbrushes, but none of it worked for long. Inevitably, the infection came roaring back.
Four months before the first outbreak, the family had adopted Umberto, a 3-year-old gray cat, from a nearby family.
SNIP
To the surprise of the vet school faculty, group A strep was found in the cat's throat; it appeared to match the strain of strep collected during Levitis' most recent throat culture. "Almost certainly Umberto was contributing to the family's infections," (veterinary internal medicine resident) Barry-Heffernan said.
FULL STORY: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/The-strep-infections-they-couldn-t-shake-15290847.php
From the link: "It seems likely that the infection was being passed among the asymptomatic cat and various members of the family; it probably originated in a human. Since (Umberto has been treated), no one in the family has had strep.
---------------
Fascinating
= new reply since forum marked as read
