nine people treated after contact with rabid kitten

Authorities believe they have identified all nine people who came into
contact with an Allegheney County, Pennsylvania, USA (Pittsburgh area)
kitten that proved to have rabies. The month-old stray kitten was
dropped off anonymously at a shelter by a woman and children; after the
kitten tested positive for rabies, authorities issued a health advisory.
The kitten died of the disease; all of the humans who came into contact
with the kitten will receive rabies vaccine as a precaution.

I guess the motto on this is not to avoid dealing with stray animals, but
to be aware of the risks, and, if you drop off a sick animal at a
shelter, leave contact information in case the animal turns out to have a
disease dangerous to humans.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

On Aug 9, 7:21�pm, "John F. Eldredge" wrote:
Authorities believe they have identified all nine people who came into
contact with an Allegheney County, Pennsylvania, USA (Pittsburgh area)
kitten that proved to have rabies. �The month-old stray kitten was
dropped off anonymously at a shelter by a woman and children; after the
kitten tested positive for rabies, authorities issued a health advisory. �
The kitten died of the disease; all of the humans who came into contact
with the kitten will receive rabies vaccine as a precaution.

I guess the motto on this is not to avoid dealing with stray animals, but
to be aware of the risks, and, if you drop off a sick animal at a
shelter, leave contact information in case the animal turns out to have a
disease dangerous to humans.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available fromhttp://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

Oh, no. I just really hate to hear that for a lot reasons. I feel
really bad for the people
who have to take the rabies shots; DH had to have them back in the
early 70's when it
was a 21-injection series, and made him dreadfully ill. I hope the
shots are improved now.
I also hate it because people all over the country will hear about it
and it will create a kind
of hysteria within communities. They'll start thinking every stray cat
is a rabies risk, and
people will be less likely to help, especially an ill or injured
stray, and animal controls will
crack down on people whose cats don't have city tags (that's how they
ensure your roaming
cat is vaccinated) and more likely to euthanize. It's sad, because
rabies is pretty rare in cats, as
statistics go, and extremely rare for a human to die of the disease.
More people probably
get struck by lightning. That's just a guess. I just hate it when
people look at any stray
animal as a rabies risk.

Sherry
Sherry

On Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:31:20 -0700, Sherry wrote:

On Aug 9, 7:21�pm, "John F. Eldredge" wrote:
Authorities believe they have identified all nine people who came into
contact with an Allegheney County, Pennsylvania, USA (Pittsburgh area)
kitten that proved to have rabies. �The month-old stray kitten was
dropped off anonymously at a shelter by a woman and children; after the
kitten tested positive for rabies, authorities issued a health
advisory. � The kitten died of the disease; all of the humans who came
into contact with the kitten will receive rabies vaccine as a
precaution.

I guess the motto on this is not to avoid dealing with stray animals,
but to be aware of the risks, and, if you drop off a sick animal at a
shelter, leave contact information in case the animal turns out to have
a disease dangerous to humans.

--
John F. Eldredge -- PGP key available
fromhttp://pgp.mit.edu "Reserve your right to think, for even to think
wrongly is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

Oh, no. I just really hate to hear that for a lot reasons. I feel really
bad for the people
who have to take the rabies shots; DH had to have them back in the early
70's when it
was a 21-injection series, and made him dreadfully ill. I hope the shots
are improved now.
I also hate it because people all over the country will hear about it
and it will create a kind
of hysteria within communities. They'll start thinking every stray cat
is a rabies risk, and
people will be less likely to help, especially an ill or injured stray,
and animal controls will
crack down on people whose cats don't have city tags (that's how they
ensure your roaming
cat is vaccinated) and more likely to euthanize. It's sad, because
rabies is pretty rare in cats, as
statistics go, and extremely rare for a human to die of the disease.
More people probably
get struck by lightning. That's just a guess. I just hate it when people
look at any stray
animal as a rabies risk.

Sherry
Sherry

The news article said that they have had a second case of cat rabies in
the Pittsburgh area since this first news item broke a few days ago,
involving a grown cat.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

"John F. Eldredge" wrote in message
...

I guess the motto on this is not to avoid dealing with stray animals, but
to be aware of the risks, and, if you drop off a sick animal at a
shelter, leave contact information in case the animal turns out to have a
disease dangerous to humans.


So sad. There was a PetsMart here that had to stop adopting out
cats/kittens for a while when one of the ones they adopted out turned out to
have rabies. The rescue group that sponsored that kitten also had others
that had to be put down. Most of the vets and shelter workers I know of
here have to have mandatory rabies vaccinations just for this reason.

On Aug 9, 8:13�pm, "Cheryl" wrote:
"John F. Eldredge" wrote in ...

I guess the motto on this is not to avoid dealing with stray animals, but
to be aware of the risks, and, if you drop off a sick animal at a
shelter, leave contact information in case the animal turns out to have a
disease dangerous to humans.

So sad. �There was a PetsMart here that had to stop adopting out
cats/kittens for a while when one of the ones they adopted out turned out to
have rabies. �The rescue group that sponsored that kitten also had others
that had to be put down. �Most of the vets and shelter workers I know of
here have to have mandatory rabies vaccinations just for this reason.

That's awful. The rabies quarantine time is so weird, that shelters
really can't
isolate a kitten for that long, it would be a grown cat before they
could be "sure".
I think the official rabies quarantine is 10 days if an animal bites
someone, but depending
on how far the wound is away from the brain, it can take *months*
before an exposed
cat starts visibly showing symptoms of the disease.
The rabies titre vaccination that you're talking about is horribly
expensive. IIRC it was about
$1500 per person. That's a lot of money for a small shelter to
vaccinate every single worker,
volunteer, foster person that comes into contact with animals. I hope
we're not starting to see
a big increase in cats specifically as rabies carriers. The bad press
alone would just kill
cat adoptions around here.

Sherry