Dr. Sarah Hamer, an epidemiologist, told KBTX-TV Friday that her team was testing dogs and cats who live in homes where the coronavirus has infected at least one person. The study began in June.
A team of researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Science has confirmed the first cats in Brazos County have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Dr. Sarah A. Hamer, a researcher on the project, told KBTX the two cats that tested positive were living in separate households.
The Covid-19 & Pets research project started in June. The veterinary researchers started working with the Brazos County Health Department to start conducting a study on cats and dogs that live in homes with confirmed human COVID-19 cases to learn more about animal exposure and transmission pathways.
She said now that they know there’s a chance for pets to become infected in COVID-positive homes, pet owners should be cautious if they become infected, but that they should not worry.
“Under no circumstances would an owner of an infected pet be asked to surrender their pets, and there’s no need to worry about a diagnosis.
But when we do find out that a pet is positive, we would work with those owners to take preventative measures to make sure that that pet is staying home, it’s not interacting with other pets and is isolating in the same way that positive people would isolate,” said Dr. Hamer.
Dr. Hamer told KBTX, at this point in their study, they have found that it is not very common for pets to become infected.
“Since late June, we’ve sampled over 50 houses and each house might have one or more pets. So it certainly isn’t common to find an infection in the pets, but we’re certainly trying to figure out under what circumstances pets are becoming infected,” said Dr. Hamer.
Since this study is relatively new, Dr. Hamer said there is still a lot to learn.
“There’s no indication right now that humans can get the virus from their infected pet. Our study certainly wasn’t designed to be able to detect that. We weren’t looking at the directionality; can the pets give it to the humans? Can the humans give it to the pets?
But one important thing to emphasize is that we were sampling exclusively houses where at least one person has been diagnosed as positive,” said Dr. Hamer.
She explained to us how animals get involved in the study through the Brazos County Health Department.
“When newly diagnosed cases get a call from the case investigator, they’re asked a series of questions and one of them is, ‘Do you own pets?’ and that’s the point where if the answer is ‘yes,’ then they are given just a small bit of information about our research study and they can choose to opt-in at that point.
Then our research team can follow up and find more details about what it actually looks like; what the site visit will involve, what we want to get from each pet, and they can choose whether they want to be involved or not,” said Dr. Hamer.
Dr. Hamer said after a pet tests positive, they would revisit the home a few times to continue collecting data.
“We’ve lined up resamplings for we get to go back to the household to sample that animal again and we hope to do so again in a couple of weeks after that.
So we’re hoping to get some data to learn about the longevity of the infection and wind antibodies become detectable,” said Dr. Hamer.
She said they have revisited the two cats that have tested positive and that they are both doing great.
A ebola infected patient arrived from africa today
the migrant arrived vomiting blood and had a high fever
the hospital was closed by police.
MONROE, La. (11/17/2019) — the emergency room at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport-Monroe Medical Center was shutdown when a african migrant patient arrived vomiting blood.
ebola outbreak map . com
has more information for those of you interested in the ebola outbreak in LA
Refugees on Planes is paying for flights for migrants to the United States.
So far in 2019, refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo Africa has been the number 1 country of origin of refugees seeking admittance to the united states.
Congo African refugees are arriving in the united states in greater numbers than any other country in the world.
Congo Africa is having the worlds second biggest Ebola Outbreak in history this month several thousand of people have died from ebola virus this month.
The United States just sent over people to try to help Congo with the Ebola crisis.
Many migrants from Congo are arriving here in the united states every day.
Kentucky migrants from africa exposed to ebola virus are being monitored for ebola virus in kentucky.
The Lexington-Fayette County Health department has announced partnerships with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Kentucky Department of Public Health to monitor those returning from ebola-affected areas of Africa for 21 days.
Health officials say the precaution is being taken to help ensure the safety of not only travelers but also the surrounding community.
a Congo migrant from Congo Africa ARRIVED IN THE UNITED STATES arrived at the Eagle Pass Port of Entry No. 2 showing signs of Ebola, the migrant who was complaining of abdominal pains vomiting blood, high fever typical Ebola virus symptoms.at approximately 9:30 am on Wednesday.
The Eagle Pass Fire Department Paramedics were summoned to give medical assistance to Congo migrant Upon arrival at the scene, Paramedics made contact with the migrant who was complaining of abdominal pains vomiting blood, high fever typical Ebola virus symptoms.
The first Zika Virus case has been reported in Orlando Florida.
Florida health officials confirmed two new cases of Zika virus on February 19, 2016 , including the first ever reported zika virus infection in Orange County! home to Disney Land!
Miami-Dade, also reported their 10th active zika virus case bringing the Florida zika virus cases to 26 cases � the highest number of zika virus infections of any U.S. State.
Zika Virus mosquitoes Aedes species make their home in Florida.
Zika virus is transmitted to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito as well as sexual contact with people that have zika virus.
Scientists also found zika virus in the saliva and urine of zika virus patients, but since zika virus is so new they are not quite sure if it is transmittable through kissing ie salvia or urine.
3 zika virus cases 3 pregnant women in florida have zika virus babies
Posted : 25 Feb, 2016 03:34 PM
Three pregnant Florida women have contracted the Zika virus.
That�s according to the Florida Department of Health. Researchers are studying possible links between Zika in pregnant women and birth defects in babies.
The Florida Department of Health won�t say where in Florida the cases were confirmed, but all were contracted while traveling outside the U.S.
�We have however identified three pregnant women who traveled to countries affected by Zika and likely had Zika virus in those countries and returned without any symptoms,� Florida Surgeon General Dr. John Armstrong told a congressional subcommittee on Zika.
Florida Governor Rick Scott has asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 250 additional Zika tests.
So far, 32 Floridians have caught the Zika virus while traveling outside the country. Only three of those cases are considered active infections. Central Florida is up to five Zika cases in Brevard, Orange, Osceola and now Seminole counties.
I am concerned people are getting this new Ebola virus vaccine and they are getting fevers so they are contagious and spreading Ebola and the media isn't talking about it!
the study hopes to fast track the Ebola vaccine so Americans can start getting vaccinated for Ebola this year!
this news has been confirmed by a local newspaper and its only appearing on ebolaoutbreakmap.com
anyone can now get the Ebola vaccine in the united states!
