Local team says Covid kitten spread virus to human

Local team says Covid kitten spread virus to human

A veterinarian in Songkhla was diagnosed with Covid-19 after being sneezed on by an infected cat last year, according to research by Prince of Songkla University's Department of Health Science and Medical Research, based at the Faculty of Medicine.

It is the first documented case of suspected cat-to-human transmission, and was published last week in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers found the cat was infected by its two owners who had tested positive. Both father, 64, and son, 32, were transferred from Bangkok to Prince of Songkla University hospital, about 900km south of Bangkok, on Aug 8 last year due to unavailability of hospital beds in the capital.

Their cat had slept on their beds in an ambulance for 20 hours. After the patients were admitted to an isolation ward of the hospital, the cat was sent to the university veterinarian hospital for an examination by a veterinarian, 32, on Aug 10 and found to be clinically normal.

During the examination, the three vets wore disposable gloves and N95 respirator masks, though they did not wear face shields or eye goggles at the time.

Three days later, one developed a fever and later tested positive.

The research team found that genome sequences obtained from the veterinarian, the cat and its two owners indicated their infections were epidemiologically related.

"In summary, we have provided evidence that cats can transmit the SARS-CoV-2 infection to humans," Thanit Sila, a member of the research team, concluded in the report.

Although the risk is low, the researcher advised eye protection for caregivers during close interactions with cats suspected to be infected.

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