April 24, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Cat infected veterinarian with coronavirus

The first case of COVID infection was recorded in the world, the carrier of which was a cat.

The incident is officially registered in Thailand, and the veterinarian turned out to be infected. The owners of the cat, father and son, ended up in the hospital with coronavirus. They sent their ten-year-old pet to the veterinary clinic. When examining the animal, the veterinarian was wearing a mask and gloves, but a couple of days after the cat sneezed on the doctor, he showed symptoms of covid – fever, cough and others.

Subsequent genetic analysis, reportedly ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕshowed that the cat, its owners, father and son, and the veterinarian were infected with the same strain of coronavirus, which at that time was not widespread among the local population.

This case confirms previous studies, the analysis of which showed that animals can infect not only other animals, but possibly humans. The incident was described by researchers from Prince of Songkla University, who published data in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published in English in the UK and covering the problems of infectious diseases and microbiology. Scientists say:

“We have found evidence that cats can transmit the SARS-CoV-2 viral infection to humans. But the possibility of such a transfer is relatively small.”

Researchers say it’s remarkable that in the midst of a pandemic, it took so long to confirm that a cat could infect humans with the coronavirus. To date, several dozen cases of Covid-19 infection of cats have been registered in the world, transmission of the virus to humans is considered possible. However, cats do not have a high viral load.



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