Facts About Toxoplasmosis

Experts Say Cats Pose Little Risk To Pregnancies Written by Denise Flaim, Published in Newsday on February 13, 2005 Along with admonitions to avoid alcohol and hot tubs -- individually or in tandem -- pregnant women invariably are warned about contact with cats, because of the concern that feline feces can transmit toxoplasmosis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 60 million Americans carry the Toxoplasma gondii parasite. An active toxoplasma infection during pregnancy can cause blindness and brain damage in the unborn infant. While the current conventional wisdom among doctors is that pregnant women who take adequate precautions against toxoplasmosis -- like wearing a surgical mask and gloves when cleaning the litter box -- need not give up their cats, some women still get that unfortunate message. In fact, the cats carry little blame. "The chances of a pregnant woman catching toxoplasmosis from her cat is extremely rare," says veterinarian James Richards, director of the Feline Health Center at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. As proof, he points to a study conducted in six large European cities and published in the July 2000 issue of the British Medical Journal. It found, he says, "absolutely no association between toxoplasmosis and having a cat [or] litterbox cleaning." Instead, the study concluded that the main risk factors for acute toxoplasmosis infection were eating undercooked lamb, beef or game (30 percent to 63 percent of infections), contact with soil (6 percent to 17 percent) and travel outside Europe and North America. "Contact with cats," the study concluded, "was not a risk factor."

Coping with Allergies to Pets Being a pet owner is never easy. While pets bring us joy and companionship on a daily basis, they also require training, veterinary care, time, love, attention, and even tolerance. Tolerance is especially necessary when a pet owner is allergic to his or her companion animal. Studies show that approximately 15% of the population is allergic to dogs or cats. An estimated one-third of Americans who are allergic to cats (about two million people) live with at least one cat in their household anyway. In a study of 341 adults who were allergic to cats or dogs and had been advised by their physicians to give up their pets, only one out of five did. What's more, 122 of them obtained another pet after a previous one had died. It's clear the benefits of pet companionship outweigh the drawbacks of pet allergies for many owners. Living comfortably with a companion animal despite being allergic to him requires a good understanding of the allergic condition and an adherence to a few rules. All cats and dogs are allergenic (allergy-causing) to people who are allergic to animals. Cats tend to be more allergenic than dogs for allergic people, although some people are more sensitive to dogs than cats. Contrary to popular belief, there are no "non-allergenic" breeds of dogs or cats; even hairless breeds may be highly allergenic. Dogs with soft, constantly-growing hair-the Poodle or the Bichon Frise, for example-may be less irritating to some individuals, although this may be because they are bathed and groomed more frequently. One dog or cat of a particular breed may be more irritating to an individual allergy sufferer than another animal of that same breed. The source of irritation to pet-allergic humans? Glands in the animal's skin secrete tiny allergy-triggering proteins, called allergens, that linger in the animal's fur but also float easily in the air. Allergens are present in the animal's saliva and urine, too, and may become airborne when saliva dries on the fur. The severity of reaction to these allergens varies from one person to the next, ranging from mild sniffling and sneezing to life-threatening asthma, and can be complicated by simultaneous allergies to other irritants in the environment. If your or a family member's allergies are simply miserable, but not life-threatening, take these steps to reduce the symptoms: Don't be quick to blame the family pet for allergies. Ask your allergist to specifically test for allergies to pet dander, rather than making an assumption. And understand that allergies are cumulative. Many allergy sufferers are sensitive to more than one allergen. So if you're allergic to dust, insecticides, pollen, cigarette smoke, and cat dander, you'll need to reduce the overall allergen level in your environment by concentrating on all of the causes, not just the pet allergy. For example, you may need to step up measures to remove cat dander from your home and carefully avoid cigarette smoke during spring, when it is difficult to avoid exposure to pollen.     Create an "allergy free" zone in the home-preferably the bedroom-and strictly prohibit the pet's access to it. Use a high-efficiency HEPA air cleaner (available at almost any home and garden store or discount department store) in the bedroom. Consider using impermeable covers for the mattress and pillows because allergen particles brought into the room on clothes and other objects can accumulate in them.   Use HEPA air cleaners throughout the rest of the home, and avoid dust-and-dander-catching furnishings such as cloth curtains and blinds and carpeted floors. Clean frequently and thoroughly to remove dust and dander, washing articles such as couch covers and pillows, curtains, and pet beds. Use a "microfilter" bag in the vacuum cleaner to effectively catch all the allergens.     Bathing your pet on a weekly basis can reduce the level of allergens on fur by as much as 84%. Although products are available that claim to reduce pet allergens when sprayed on the animal's fur, studies show they are less effective than a weekly bath. Even cats can become accustomed to being bathed; check with your veterinarian's staff or a good book on pet care for directions about how to do this properly, and use whatever shampoo your veterinarian recommends.     Immunotherapy (allergy shots) can improve symptoms but cannot eliminate them entirely. They work by gradually desensitizing a person's immune system to the pet allergens. Allergy-causing proteins are injected under the person's skin, triggering the body to produce antibodies (protective proteins) which block the pet allergen from causing a reaction. Patients are usually given one dose per week for a few weeks to months (depending on the severity of the allergy) and then can often manage with one injection per month.     Additional treatments for allergies to pets are symptomatic, including steroidal and antihistamine nose sprays and antihistamine pills. For asthma, there are multiple medications, sprays, and inhalers available. It is important to find an allergist who understands your commitment to living with your pet. A combination of approaches-medical control of symptoms, good housecleaning methods, and immunotherapy-is most likely to succeed in allowing an allergic person to live with pets.     Of course, if you do not currently have a pet and are considering one, and know you are pet-allergic, be sure to consider carefully whether you can live with the allergy before you bring a new pet home. Except in the case of children, who sometimes outgrow allergies, few allergy sufferers become accustomed to pets to whom they are allergic. Too many allergic owners obtain pets without thinking through the difficulties of living with them. And too often, they end up relinquishing pets, a decision that is difficult for the owner and can be life-threatening for the pet.       Originally Published by the Humane Society of the United States

Kids' best friends: Pets help prevent allergies by Gina Greene, published by CNN on August 27, 2002 Flying in the face of conventional wisdom, a new study shows that children who grow up with pets in the home have a reduced risk of developing common allergies. "It was very strongly the opposite of what we expected to find," said lead researcher Dr. Dennis R. Ownby, who is chief of allergy and immunology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. "Allergists have been trained for generations that dogs and cats in the house were bad because they increased the risk of you becoming allergic to them; we know that before you become allergic to something you have to be repeatedly exposed to it." But the study, released in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association -- which tracked a group of 474 babies from birth to about age 7 -- found differently. Researchers found that the 184 children in the group exposed to two or more dogs or cats in infancy were half as likely to develop common allergies than the 220 children who had no pets in the home. The researchers found the group exposed to animals had fewer positive skin test to indoor allergens -- such as pet and dust mite allergens -- and also outdoor allergens like ragweed and grass. Moreover, the kids exposed to cats and dogs were almost half as likely to have hyper-responsive and easily irritated airways -- a risk factor for asthma. The research also suggests that more is better. For example, 15.5 percent of kids without pets were allergic to cats compared with almost 12 percent with one cat or dog. That number dropped to just under eight percent when two or more pets were in the home. "This contributes to the mounting evidence that the things allergists have believed for years and parents have lived by are wrong," said Ownby, Indeed the body of evidence is growing. In fact, a recent study sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases found that low-to-moderate amounts of cat allergen triggered allergies in children while high amounts had a preventive effect against allergies -- and asthma as well. So what is it about cats and dogs? Researchers think the secret may lie in endotoxins, the breakdown products of bacteria found in the animals' mouths. They're thought to force the body's immune system into developing a response pattern that's less likely to lead to allergic reactions. "The bottom line," says Ownby, "is that maybe part of the reason we have so many children with allergies and asthma is we live too clean a life."