Do you sleep with your pet? Do you ever kiss your pet, or let it lick your face? If so, you may want to reconsider allowing such behavior in the future, since you are probably well on your way to contracting the plague. According to a new study to be published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Emerging Infectious Diseases monthly issue (Teen Beat for epidemiologists), you greatly increase the chance of bringing diseases such as parasites, staph infection, and meningitis into your system by sleeping with your beloved pet.
According to the authors of the study, Drs. Bruno Chomel and Ben Sun, "the risk for transmission of zoonotic agents by close contact between pets and their owners through bed sharing, kissing or licking is real and has even been documented for life-threatening infections such as plague, internal parasites" and other serious diseases. Zoonoses are diseases or infections transmitted from animals to humans. They found that 53 percent of dog owners consider their dogs members of the family, and 56 percent of those people sleep with their dogs next to them. They also found that women were more likely than men to allow their dogs to share their beds, and cats carry just as many diseases as dogs.
They cite a couple cases for your squirm-inducing displeasure, including a 9-year-old boy from Arizona who got the plague because he slept with his flea-infested cat; a 48-year-old man and his wife who repeatedly contracted MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), because their dog "routinely slept in their bed and frequently licked their face"; and a Japanese woman who contacted meningitis after kissing her pet's face. All these fun anecdotes, and they don't even have a chance to mention Toxoplasmosis, which an estimated 30 to 65 percent of all people worldwide are infected with, thanks to infected or raw meat—so make sure your cat doesn't eat any gross rodents!
