A team of researchers from Thailand has reported the first strong evidence of transmission of the coronavirus from a cat to a personwhich would add felines to the list of animals that can transmit the virus to humans.
The researchers who have analyzed this contagion assure that the results of the investigation “are convincing”. “We knew this was a possibility for two years,” Angela Bosco-Lauth, an infectious disease researcher at Colorado State University, told Nature magazine.
Scientists have come to this conclusion after a father and son tested positive for COVID-19 last August, so were transferred to the isolation area of Prince of Songkla University hospital in Hat Yaisouth of Thailand.
Her domestic cat, from which a veterinarian was taking a sample, sneezed in the face of the professional, who was wearing a mask and gloves, but no eye protection. The animal tested positive for coronavirus and three days later the vet developed fever, cold and cough.
The professional tested positive for coronavirus, but none of his close contacts developed the disease, which, according to the study, suggests that the cat would have infected her. In addition, genetic analysis indicated that the veterinarian was infected with the same variant as the cat and its owners and that the viral genomic sequences were identical.
The study was published June 6 in Emerging Infectious Diseases 1 and co-author Sarunyou Chusri, an infectious disease researcher and physician at Prince of Songkla University, says it’s worth taking extra precautions when handling cats suspected of being infected.
Despite this, scientists point out that these cases are rare and that animals do not yet play an important role in the spread of the virus.
Source: Lasexta
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