A Note to Pregnant Women
Women
who are planning on starting a family need to be aware of a parasite
called toxoplasma gondii, which can cause an infection
call Toxoplasmosis in humans. Cats are one of the animals
that can carry and spread this parasite to humans through infectious
cysts shed in their stool. Toxoplasmosis will generally
cause mild flu-like symptoms in humans that goes away after a
few days, but it can be very harmful to fetuses in teh first
trimester of pregnancy.
Although
this scares many people, Toxoplasmosis is only infectious under
extremely particular circumstances that almost never coexist. A
cat has to have had a recent infection, it has to be shedding
the cysts which have to exist in stool in the litter box for
more than 24 hours, a woman needs to get the stool in their mouth
or eye, and she has to be in her first trimester. Cats
shed toxoplasma cysts in their feces three to ten days after
eating infected tissues from another animal; so your cat would
have had to hunt and eat an infected mouse or other creature
in order to be infected himself. The only way an indoor
cat woudl be infected is if you have rodents in your house that
it hunts, or if he is on a raw food diet (the parasite is transmissible
to both cats and humans who consume raw meat). Statistics
show you are more likely to contract Toxoplasmosis from handling
raw meat or gardening in infected soil.
Doctors
suggest letting someone else scoop the litter for you during
your first trimester. If that's not possible, they advise
wearing gloves, using litter box liners, and changing the entire
box every 24 hours. Still, you'd have to get the cyst that
got onto your hand into your mouth or eyes, and that can be avoided
by washing your hands when you're done cleaning the litter box.
Since
many people do not even realize that they have had Toxoplasmosis,
you should have your doctor or midwife do a blood test for evidence
of past infection before you get pregnant or as early in pregnancy
as possible. If the test is positive, you have already
had the infection and do not need to worry about passing a new
infection to your baby. If the test is negative, you should
take the precautions above, wear latex gloves when you handle
raw meat, wear gardening gloves while doing yardwork, and wash
your hands thoroughly after these activities. |