DEADLY CAT-FLEA DISEASE HITS AUSTRALIA

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD - 6 JAN 2011
Julia Medew January 06, 2011

DOCTORS are urging people to keep their pets clean after discovering Australia's first case of a potentially fatal disease transmitted by cat fleas to humans.
A team of doctors reported the discovery of cat-flea typhus in the Medical Journal of Australia this week after they carried out a lengthy investigation similar to those featured in the hit television series House.

Dr Julian Kelly, a paediatrician at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, said the journey began when a nine-year-old girl was admitted to the hospital in April 2009 with a fever and rash that could not be easily diagnosed.
She was admitted to the intensive care unit three days later when the infection caused her lungs to fill with fluid.

During her stay, three other members of her family fell sick with the mysterious illness, which was later diagnosed as cat-flea typhus, also known as Rickettsia felis.

While blood tests pointed to the uncommon disease group for the patients while they were in hospital, it took about four months for researchers from a specialist laboratory to track down where the disease came from.

''The family had about 10 different types of animals at their home, they had pigs, rats, mice, cats, ducks, and they lived next door to a swamp, so it was very difficult to work out where it would be,'' Dr Kelly said.

However, when doctors realised all of the patients had been in contact with flea-infested kittens, they followed the lead and discovered the kittens' family, which was living on another property, carried fleas with the disease.

''It was quite an entertaining case … It's taken about 18 months to get to the point of publishing it in the medical journal,'' Dr Kelly said.

He said all of the patients recovered from the illness, which kills about 2 per cent of those infected. Although the bug was rare, its presence in Australia should encourage people to keep their animals clean, he said.

''Make sure you de-flea your cat when you get one. I think that's the take-home message.''

Australian Rickettsial Reference Laboratory director Dr Stephen Graves said that although the disease had been found in cat and dog fleas in Western Australia, it had never been found in humans in Australia. He said people could get the disease if an infected flea bit them, because when fleas bite they defecate the disease from their intestines.

''If the person scratches after being bitten, the flea's faeces get inoculated into the bite site,'' he said. Dr Graves said the disease could cause people to experience symptoms including a fever and rash and could be treated with antibiotics.

Quoted from website: http://m.smh.com.au/national/deadly-catflea-disease-hits-australia-20110105-19g8p.html