Cases of disease transmitted by cats develop in Bahia; to learn to identify – Newspaper MAIL

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Ana Nery Teixeira, a 43-year-old pet care center, had 170 cats at her home in 2015. She, who lives in Camaçari, in the Salvador Metropolitan Area (RMS), sacrificed more than half of the animals. between them because they were infected. and weakened by sporotrichosis.

The disease, transmitted by the fungus Sporothrix, found mainly in soils and foliage, is a ringworm that strikes animals and humans. Symptoms are wounds that, if left unattended, can evolve and, in rare cases, lead to death.

According to the Group of support and protection of the street animal (Gapar), from 2015 to the last year, more than a thousand cases have been recorded in the cat and l '; man, in Camaçari – the data also includes dead felines.

"We have information that two people have died and that these deaths have not been registered as sporotrichosis," explained Natália Vieira, 32, one of Gapar's founders.

January 23 this year, 247 cases of the disease in humans – 171 in 2018 and six this month, no deaths of people.

Unlike the experts, the secretariat stated that the disease was not a zoonosis and therefore did not take into account the disease. infected animals. The disease was recorded in the districts of Gravatá, Nova Vitória, Novo Horizonte, Limoeiro, Parque Verde, Bomba, Poch, Lama Preta and Parque das Mangabas. The area of ​​Camaçariense with the most people affected was Mangabas Park, with 63 cases (25.5%).

Transmission
But how do you contract this disease? According to the doctor of veterinary medicine and professor of the Federal University of Bahia (Ufba), Nadia Rossi de Almeida, the transmission to the man is done by the scratches and the animal bites and, by Therefore, it is common to reach the hands of adults and children's faces. She, who monitors the disease, also says that, although rare, sporotrichosis also strikes dogs and rats – the fungal burden is even more important in cats.

This is how Ana Nery was contaminated. "In 2015, I caught a wounded cat, scratched and tainted other cats that had to be sacrificed," she said, also a victim of the disease.

She has spots on the body, but that's the least of the problems.

Diagnosis
Veterinarian Ilka Gonçalves has already treated infected patients in Salvador, Camaçari, Candeias and Chapada Diamantina. She warns that cats, like humans, are victims and need treatment.

"Animals are very neglected.Many people do not have money, do not know how to handle the situation or are afraid to take the disease, give it up or sacrifice it If you are healed and healed, you do not have to euthanize it, it's a life " he complains.

She then warned against incorrect diagnoses. "In dogs, sporotrichosis can be confused with leishmaniasis, so it is important to have an appropriate biopsy and examination," he said.

It should be remembered that animals that die of sporotrichosis must be incinerated – they can not be buried because the soil is a breeding ground for mushrooms.