"Doctors used to say the woman should get rid of the cat, but that's totally unnecessary," says Dr. Michael Davidson, associate professor of companion animal and special species medicine at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. The only way a woman can get toxoplasmosis from a cat is through direct contact with its feces, which most people try to avoid anyway! A few simple precautions are all that's needed to prevent exposure to this parasite during pregnancy.
Some 80 percent of domestic cats are exposed to toxoplasmosis during their lives, usually as a result of eating a mouse, mole, squirrel or other infected prey. Some cats show no symptoms; others get diarrhea or become listless. Occasionally, pneumonia or eye inflammation occurs. Indoor cats in rodent-free homes may never be exposed.
As many as 60 percent of humans also become exposed, usually after handling cat feces either in a litter box or garden, says Dr. Davidson. Chances are, most cat owners who have lived with felines for any length of time have already been exposed to toxoplasmosis. Like cats, people generally show no symptoms or appear to have only a mild "flu." Although a person shows no symptoms, he or she still produces an antibody, thus building up immunity.
"If you have been exposed to toxoplasmosis and produced an antibody, you're pretty well protected," says Dr. John Botti, director of maternal-fetal medicine at Penn State University College of Medicine. If a woman is exposed to the parasite for the first time during pregnancy, though, the effects that it will have on her and the baby depend on how far along she is in the pregnancy. During the first three months, it is unlikely that a woman will pass the parasite on to her developing fetus. If toxoplasmosis is transmitted to the baby during this time, however, the chances are greatest that the baby will develop a major health problem. Conversely, a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy is most likely to pass on toxoplasmosis to her baby, but the parasite is least likely to cause serious birth defects.
To eliminate the risk of exposure to toxoplasmosis, pregnant cat owners should avoid handling the litter box by having someone else perform the task, or simply wear gloves when cleaning it, and washing hands thoroughly afterwards. This also applies to gardening, especially if outdoor cats frequent the area. "Just use common sense," Dr. Davidson advises. As an added precaution, he recommends that the litter box be changed daily because, once the organism is shed, it takes at least 24 hours for it to become transmissible to humans. Interestingly, cats can only shed the organism in their feces one time during their lives - just after they have been exposed for the first time. And, Dr. Davidson says, "It's unlikely they'll shed it during a woman's pregnancy."
A simple blood test can determine if a person has ever been exposed to toxoplasmosis. Unfortunately, it cannot specify when exposure occurred, so it's a good idea for a woman to be tested before becoming pregnant. If she has been exposed she will know for sure it was prior to her pregnancy.
Toxoplasmosis should be taken seriously, but it's no reason for pregnant women to get rid or even avoid their cats. During pregnancy, a woman has days when she feels apprehensive about the future or stressed about her weight gain or fearful of the impending delivery. The perfect remedy - and one that is completely safe - may be to curl up on the sofa with a feline friend.
The toxoplasmosis scare with regard to cats has limited foundation. Even if you do change cat litter, it would be extremely hard for you to catch toxoplasmosis from it - not impossible, but hard. You are much more likely to catch toxoplasmosis from eating rare or lightly cooked meat, and poor food hygiene generally.
Toxoplasmosis is caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. It is only a danger to the unborn child if the mother contracts it during pregnancy for the first time. The infection can only cross the placenta in the acute phase of the illness, i.e. in the mother's first attack. After this the mother is usually immune, but even if she does have another dose, it will not harm the baby.
So assuming you are not immune to toxoplasmosis, how do you go about catching it? Here's what you'd have to do with cats:
First, find a cat which is allowed outdoors and which hunts - as they usually catch toxoplasmosis from eating rodent prey. Housebound cats will not be able to catch it. In cats generally, about 20-60% have been infected [1]. The prevalence is highest in feral cats although domestic cats can catch it too. However, very few of these cats will actually be infectious themselves, as usually they will only transmit the disease during their primary infection. After the cat is first infected, it will shed oocysts (eggs) in its faeces for 10-14 days. It will not normally shed them after this period, and only around 1% of infected cats have been found to be infectious in surveys [1]. However, the oocysts can survive for a year or more, so old cat faeces are potentially dangerous - e.g. ones that have been mouldering in your garden and which you stumble upon while weeding the borders.
So, having found your cat during its rare infectious period, you then have to actually ingest some of these oocysts to get infected. We are not talking about changing cat litter with basic hygiene precautions here. You actually have to ingest cat faeces somehow. If you are washing your hands after changing cat litter then this will be very unlikely. However, wearing gloves while gardening, and not touching your face or mouth while gardening, is probably a sensible precaution.
Just looking at the numbers here, if around 1% (and this is probably a high estimate) of cats are shedding oocysts at any particular time, and around 30% of women are immune anyway, then only around 0.6% of women who come into contact with one cat are at even a *theoretical* risk of catching toxoplasmosis from their cat while pregnant. And this would be assuming that they actually went out of their way to try to catch it, i.e. deliberately ate cat faeces! Bringing in basic hygiene precautions will mean that the proportion of that 0.6% of women who stand any realistic chance of being infected is miniscule.
Without being complacent about toxoplasmosis as it is a dreadful disease for a baby to catch in utero, it appears ridiculous that many pregnant women are paranoid about going near cats, when they should be concentrating their attentions on food hygiene and caution while gardening.
If you do catch toxoplasmosis in pregnancy, estimates of the likely percentage of babies affected vary, as do estimates of the likely severity of the illness. For example: "there is approximately a 40% chance that the foetus will acquire the infection, and in around 10% of these cases, severe neurological or ocular disease is present at birth" [1] or "The transmission rate from a maternal infection is about 45%. Of these 60% are sub-clinical infections, 9% result in death of the foetus and 30% have severe damage such as hydrocephalus, intracerebral calcification, retinochoroiditis and mental retardation." [3]
Such treatments could overcome problems with current cell replacement therapies for diabetes, which are hindered by limited availability of donor tissue and the need for immune suppression.
Instead, test tube tests on embryonic stem cells are more effective at detecting toxicity than animal tests, says the study's principal author, Jarrod Bailey of the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
"It is time to admit that animal-based testing is an abject failure," he says. "An estimated 50,000 to 70,000 new chemicals and up to 400 new drugs are introduced to the market every year. Every year we delay, every year we continue to rely on animal testing, brings us that much closer to another tragedy like thalidomide."
A 60-year-old man went to a doctor for a check-up. The doctor told him, "You're in terrific shape. There's nothing wrong with you. Why, you might live forever; you have the body of a 35-year-old. By the way, how old was your father when he died?"
The 60-year-old responded, "Did I say he was dead?"
The doctor was surprised and asked, "How old is he and is he very active?"
The 60-year-old responded, "Well, he is 82 years old and he still goes skiing three times a season and surfing three times a week during the summer."
The doctor couldn't believe it. So, he asked, "Well, how old was your grandfather when he died?"
The 60-year-old responded again, "Did I say he was dead?"
The doctor was astonished. He said, "You mean to tell me you are 60 years old and both your father and your grandfather are alive? Is your grandfather very active?"
The 60-year-old said, "He goes skiing at least once a season and surfing once a week during the summer. Not only that," said the patient, "my grandfather is 106 years old, and next week he is getting married again."
The doctor said, "At 106-years, why on earth would your grandfather want to get married?"
His patient looked up at the doctor and said, "Did I say he wanted to?"
Conservation Promote wildlife and habitat conservation through partnerships with the scientific and academic communities, and organizations committed to preserving the earth's biodiversity. Integrate natural resource conservation in all Disney's planning, development and operations activities. Effectively plan and manage conservation lands for the preservation of native plant and animal species.
There's a good reason why she called me that, but that's strictly between us. :p
In her words, "she is very brave, and controls the underworld. Pickpocket n stuff, n smuggling is her turf and she protects it well. She fights man!" LOL :D I don't do the pickpocketing or smuggling though.
To free his family from charges of treason, Rafe Fletcher infiltrates the Southwark underworld of Elizabethan England. There he meets the Queen of the Clink, beautiful and dangerous Vivian Swift, a woman full of contradictions, a woman he cannot help but love. Loaded with intrigue, HEART OF DECEPTION is intelligent, dark, and sexy.
(Source: Circulation, journal of the American Heart Association)
Abstract:
Background— Insulin resistance predisposes to cardiovascular disease and shortens human lifespan. We therefore tested the hypothesis that a rise in insulin resistance in concert with gain in body mass is associated with accelerated white blood cell telomere attrition.
Methods and Results— We measured white blood cell telomere dynamics and age-related changes in insulin resistance and body mass index in young adults of the Bogalusa Heart Study. Over 10.1 to 12.8 years, the relative changes in telomere length were correlated with the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (r=–0.531, P<0.001) and changes in the body mass index (r=–0.423, P<0.001).
Conclusions— These findings provide the first tangible nexus of telomere biology with insulin resistance and adiposity in humans.
The authors speculate that “oxidative stress, by enhancing telomere erosion per replication, and inflammation, through increasing WBC [white blood cell] turnover, are responsible for the increase in telomere erosion with a rise in insulin resistance in the present study cohort.” They conclude that “Insulin resistance and obesity accelerate aging because they are states of increased oxidative stress and inflammation, which bring about a shorter lifespan. In biological terms, an accelerated WBC telomere attrition rate in insulin resistance and obese states is an affirmation of this concept.”
S. Korea Takes Admirable Lead in Stem Cell Science
Hope for my Dad and others who suffer similar maladies that can be cured by stem cell science. Asia will most likely take the lead in stem cell research, with S. Korea and China charging forward.
Woo-Suk Hwang, the head of a team of South Korean scientists who cloned the first human embryo to use for research said in an interview with Reuters that stem cell science will advance because of its enormous potential, and will not be halted by political interests.
"The scientific effort to resolve the pain of patients with incurable conditions is very honourable, and I believe no mere individual politician or party can stop the historic trend," Hwang said at his laboratory at Seoul National University.
"Solving these problems is a common responsibility of humanity," he said.
Earlier this month, Hwang's team made news around the world for its research that fulfilled one of the basic promises of cloning technology in stem cell research -- that a piece of skin could be taken from a patient to grow stem cells with that patient's specific genetic material.
Researchers believe that the cells one day could be used to provide individually tailored tissue and organ transplants, as well as curing maladies such as juvenile diabetes and Parkinson's disease, or to repair severe spinal cord injuries.
Hwang would like to keep the science on stem cell research open and global, saying that greater international cooperation will lead to more effective results, more quickly.
For him, the ethical consideration should weigh heavily in favour of a patient suffering from a disease or malady now considered incurable -- as opposed to the stem cells he creates in the lab.
"Let's say we have a microproduct just 100 micrometers long, made through nuclear transfer technology, and let's say we have a human being who has lived in pain all his life," Hwang said. "To argue that there is a balance (in considering the humanity of the two) would not be ethical."
Hwang thinks his work could help open a new chapter in medical treatment by potentially creating individualised cells to treat maladies for which they may be no cure today.
"I dare believe this breakthrough will be a factor that will bring in a new era in medical history," Hwang said.
"To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness." -- Bertrand Russell
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
-- Thomas Edison (Harper's Magazine, 1890)
A woman's romance with motherhood, green living, finance, and this heady thing called life.
