Bacterial Infections of Humans Caused by Bites of Animals (NOT insects)
Introduction
Animal bites on humans may cause open wounds or even crushing injuries. Like us, all animals carry certain bacteria or viruses that can cause illness if passed on to humans via the open wounds. The pathogen entry pathway for these zoonotic infections include bites or scratches, and direct contact saliva or waste. These diseases bring about a considerable amount of inconvenience to humans and therefore, the greatest concerns are of young children and immunocompromised patients. Children are especially susceptible to getting bitten and an adult supervision is always recommended because their immune systems are still weak and an infection that might mildly infect an adult can be fatal for them.
Substantially, injuries inflicted by dogs and cats are the most common, and in 70% of these cases, victims are attacked by their own pets or an animal they know. These bites can prove to be deadly after they become infected and cause serious problems, especially to the face and hands. Dog bites occur most frequently and cat bites usually cause deeper, highly infectious wounds because the infected region can be hard to clean. Bites from exotic pets (eg. Rats, gerbils, iguanas…) are not much of a concern as they do not carry serious risks. Livestock (eg. Horses, sheeps, cow…) have powerful jaws that can inflict crushing bite injuries and together with wild animal bites, infection, tetanus and rabies are concerns here.
Listed below are common infections following animal bites.
Body
Dogs and Cats
Dogs and cats are popular household pets but they risk passing the following diseases.
• Campylobacter Infection
The bacteria, Campylobacter Jejuni is found commonly ...
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...ldren are at higher risks of complications including dehydration, meningitis and sepsis.
Other Animals
Handling and caring for rodents (including hamsters and gerbils) or even fish, puts humans at risk for the below-mentioned infections.
• Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis (LCM)
People contract the LCM virus by inhaling particles of urine, faeces or saliva of infected rodents like hamsters and mice. LCM has flu-like symptoms including fever, fatigue, headaches, muscle aches, nausea and vomiting and, may even lead to meningitis or encephalitis. Like Toxoplasmosis, LCM can be a neonatal complication.
• Mycobacterium Marinum
This infection usually affects people exposed to contaminated water in aquariums or pools. Although Mycobacterium Marinum infections are generally mild and limited to the skin, they proved to be more severe in immunocompromised patients.
Conclusion
National Canine Research Council. Investigative Report for Dog-Bite Related Fatalities 2009. National Canine Research Council, 2010. 6-48. Print.
“Dog Bite: Fact Sheet.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC, 1 Apr. 2008. Web. 13
Exotic animals carry diseases and infections that can be potentially harmful or fatal to humans, jeopardizing the safety of the community. These diseases range in severity from common ringworm infections from African pygmy hedgehogs to lyssaviruses in p...
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No matter what, where, or who you are, water is a necessary component to keeping any organism alive. Although water is essential for life, in many places, clean drinking water is hard to find. There are many consequences to drinking contaminated water. Every year, three to five million people are attacked by water-borne diseases and over 100,000 of them die. One fatal disease that can kill within hours is cholera.
Hantavirus is a virus in the Bunyaviridae family of viruses. Dr. Lee Ho Wang from Korea discovered Hantavirus in the early 1950s. Though the virus is commonly found in rodents, it does not cause disease in the rodents. Disease results when the virus is transmitted to humans. A common way of contracting Hantavirus is from breathing in dust that has been contaminated by an infected rodent’s saliva, feces or urine or the infected dust gets into broken skin. It is also transmitted by the bite of an infected rodent. So far, it has not been confirmed that Hantavirus can be passed on from person to person. The most common places to contract Hantavirus are Korea, China or most countries in Asia. In Korea, Hantavirus seems to have two major “seasons;” May to June and October to November are the times of year when the disease is more prevalent because the rodent populations are higher during these times. There are two forms of Hantavirus, the mild illness found in Scandinavia, and the more severe illness found in the Far East and Central Europe.
The hanta virus is usually transmitted by a species of mice commonly known as deer mice, or Peromyscus maniculatis. The mice are described as having "brownish-gray fur, a white stomach and disproportionately large ears" (www.slac.stanford.edu). An infected mouse can spread the hanta virus if a human comes in contact with its urine, feces, saliva or dead body. Inhalation of the dust or tiny particles that spread into the air when any of the above are touched...
Animal abuse is described generally as any act or omission that causes unnecessary or unreasonable harm to an animal. Animal abuse are vary and can lead to different forms. These may include, tormenting or beating an animal, executing an animal in a harsh way, binding or transporting an animal in a way that is improper for its welfare, neglecting to give fitting living conditions, neglecting to give proper or satisfactory sustenance or water for an animal and neglecting to give suitable treatment to infection or injury (Animal Cruelty, n.d.). In general, for an act to be considered as animal cruelty, it must be a non-accidental, socially unacceptable, enacted on a vertebrate animal, causing pain, suffering and distress or death. (Battle, 2013).
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Reading this short story was very confusing. I could not understand why the narrator was on medication to the point that would be forbidden to work. The narrator states that she does not know what medication she is on. The medication is affecting her mind. I googled “phosphates” and it stated that its main use is for treating urinary tract infections. The narrator also stated that tonics, journeys, air and exercise is forbidden. That does not go along with the symptoms of the infection. What I finally got a better understanding was where the narrator was located. One of my peers helped answer this question. At first, I thought the narrator was just locked up in the mansion forbidden to leave. The narrator is questioning why she is in the mansion
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...ected animals. Vertebrate hosts including livestock e.g cattles, sheep and goat serve as a reservoir for infections. some infections in animals produces no symptoms while other varies with host.