A 63-year-old woman from Brazil developed wounds on her hand after being scratched
It's been two years since a rare cat disease normally only found in South America was spotted in the UK, leaving three people with blisters. This fungal infection, known as Sporotrichosis, has previously only been seen in South America.
However, it usually only impacts the skin or tissues underneath. The 63-year-old mum from Brazil, who has lived in the UK for three years without returning home, developed wounds on her hand after being scratched by her cat. Her lymph nodes also swelled up. After visiting their doctor, they were sent to their local infectious diseases clinic, which provided them with a six-month treatment of itraconazole, a medication used to treat fungal infections. A male vet who checked the cat during a visit was also scratched by the infected pet, and four weeks later he too developed an ulcer on his middle finger and lesions on his arm.
The UK cases are the first to be recorded in Britain, but diseases like this, transmitted from cats to humans, have been around for decades in Brazil. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, cases of sporotrichosis had been found in multiple Brazilian states by 2018, with over 4,500 human cases spread by cats between 1998-2014.
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