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Groups of diseases that are transmitted to humans through contact with animals have the medical name “zoonosis”. There are about 850 zoonoses on the planet. With some, a person almost never encounters, so there is a high probability that doctors have not discovered many more diseases.
As they say, aware is armed. Here are 10 human diseases that are initially transmitted to us from domestic or wild animals.
10 Rabies
In the first place is the disease with sad mortality statistics. The rabies virus enters the human body through a bite or wound from a sick animal. The highest concentration of the pathogen is found in the saliva, and only then in the blood of a mammal. The incubation period of the disease is unpredictable, and sometimes it is completely asymptomatic. Meanwhile, the virus enters the human brain, causing a devastating and irreversible effect on the nervous system. With brain dysfunction, the control of the musculoskeletal system and the respiratory system is disturbed, resulting in the death of a person. Treatment according to the Milwaukee Protocol allows in 8% of cases to overcome the disease even at the time of the onset of symptoms, although for this patient they are sent into an artificial coma and stuffed with significant doses of antiviral drugs.
9. cat scratch fever
As it turned out, harmless domestic purrs can inadvertently be carriers of a bacterium that provokes the disease. Through a bite or scratch, the pathogen enters the human body, causing swelling and redness of the affected area, swelling of the lymph nodes, and even the appearance of a rash after 1-2 (up to 8) weeks. Often, the immune system copes with the fever on its own, which does not require medical treatment. But people with weakened immune systems (including children and elderly patients) need antibiotic therapy, otherwise the disease may aggravate to pneumonia and even coma.
8. Ornithosis
The virus enters humans from wild and domestic birds. Normally, at a heating temperature of about 70 ° C, it dies within 15 minutes, which makes it possible to accidentally eat sick birds without consequences. But at low temperatures, the pathogen remains active for up to 60 days, and it is also resistant to drying. The disease affects about 100 species of birds, including geese, ducks, chickens, pheasants, parrots and pigeons. A person becomes infected mainly through the air and food of a sick bird, as well as during post-slaughter processing (cutting, plucking, etc.). The disease manifests itself with symptoms of pneumonia: weakness and lethargy, difficulty breathing, congestion on the nasopharyngeal mucosa, loss of appetite, etc.
7. Trichinellosis
The causative agent of the disease is the larva of the round helminth. It enters the human body through the digestive system (eating trichinosis meat). After 2-3 days, the larvae reach sexually mature forms and begin to actively multiply, clogging the lymphatic system of the gastrointestinal mucosa. Also, the larvae are found in the bloodstream, muscle fiber. The disease is manifested by aches and sharp pains in the muscles, increased swelling of the face, persistent eosinophilia in blood tests.
6. Toksokaroz
The disease is transmitted to humans as a result of direct contact with the faeces of infected wild (foxes) and domestic (dogs, cats) animals. Toxocariasis is a parasite that lays eggs in the body of the host. They can hibernate for a couple of years, after which the larvae hatch and reach the gastrointestinal tract. The patient notes symptoms characteristic of the disease: cough, colic and bloating, constant headache, hyperthermia. If toxocariasis has reached the eyes of the carrier, then visual impairment and inflammation of the area are possible, and in advanced cases, complete blindness occurs.
5. Visceral leishmaniasis
The disease is caused by a parasite carried by a female mosquito through a bite. Similar species of mosquitoes live in the temperate regions of the planet and the tropics. Every year, this form of leishmaniasis infects up to 500 thousand people, while 50 thousand die. This human parasite is one of the most dangerous in history after the sensational malaria. In the absence of competent treatment, the mortality from the disease is one hundred percent. Symptoms resemble malaria: febrile temperature, lethargy and weakness, anemia, enlargement and changes in the structure of internal organs (spleen, liver). Also, patients may darken the surface of the skin, characteristic ulcerations appear. In its advanced form, the parasite attacks the immune system and weakens it, making it resistant to other dangerous diseases, such as pneumonia.
4. MERS
This “young” disease was first diagnosed in Saudi Arabia 6 years ago. The carrier of the virus turned out to be a bat – a grave sack-wing. The pathogen enters the human body not through direct contact with a sick bat, but through an intermediate carrier, which is most often domestic and industrial animals. According to statistics 4 years ago, outbreaks of the disease were diagnosed in 22 countries. However, almost all cases were linked directly or indirectly to Saudi Arabia.
3. Tularemia
The disease is characteristic of the continent of North America. It is caused by a bacterium that is transmitted from a rabbit to a person through intermediate parasites (lice, mites). Also, the pathogen enters the body after contact with the corpses of infected animals, through infected foods and water from a drinking bowl. The incubation period is about 3-5 days, after which symptoms develop: febrile temperature, diarrhea, headaches, fever, arthritis, swelling of the lymph nodes and mucous eyes, ulcers on the skin and mouth, lethargy, etc. The acute course of the disease in the absence adequate antibiotic therapy leads to the death of the patient. Basically, a person dies from dehydration, respiratory failure, which leads to pneumonia or suffocation.
2. Q fever
One of the most contagious strains of bacteria, as theoretically the 1st colony will be enough to infect humanity. The causative agent is transmitted by wild and domestic animals, as well as other people (mainly sexually). From an animal, a bacterium can be obtained as a result of contact with any biological fluids (milk, saliva, semen, excrement, etc.). The first symptoms appear within 3 weeks: hyperthermia, headaches, sweating, fever, photophobia. In the absence of treatment with strong antibiotics, such complications of the disease as hepatitis and pneumonia are possible. Therapy usually takes from several months to a couple of years, because to prevent a relapse, it is necessary to kill every single bacterium.
1. Toxoplasmosis
The simplest microorganism enters the human body after contact with a pet (cat, dog). The animal picks up the pathogen from infected meat. Symptoms of the disease, as a rule, are erased, which makes it difficult to treat it in time. Tissue cysts form in the body, which settle in healthy cells, striated muscles, and even the brain. A pregnant woman can transmit the pathogen to the fetus, which after birth may develop jaundice, thrombocytopenia, maculopapular rash, lymphadenopathy, hydrocephalus, deafness, convulsive syndrome, etc.
Despite the rarity of such diseases, hundreds and even thousands of patients end up in clinics. Some of the zoonoses are easily treatable and involve the administration of special sera, while others are quickly fatal. Be careful when dealing with domestic and wild animals.