Cats can get Sars
2003-05-15 18:42
Geneva - Some cats may become temporarily infected with the Sars virus but do not appear to be able to transmit the disease, according to research in Hong Kong, a top World Health Organisation (WHO) official said on Thursday.
David Heymann, head of WHO's communicable diseases unit, also told journalists that officials in China were preparing research to find out how the pneumonia-like disease might have jumped the species barrier between animals and humans.
Heymann told journalists that the only studies on domestic pets like cats and dogs that he knew of had been carried out following the outbreak at the Amoy gardens apartement block in Hong Kong.
"They noticed that some cats did become infected transiently with Sars, but they (the cats) did not continue to harbour the disease and they didn't seem to be able to transmit it," he added.
Reports last month that a cat owned by a family in the infected block had been carrying the virus caused a flurry among local residents, prompting some to return their household companions to the nearest pet shop.
Health and agriculture ministries in China's Guangdong Province are preparing studies to find out what animals might carry Sars, Heymann said.
The outbreak of the potentially deadly disease is believed to have originated in the area.
Live game markets
"The big question is what animal studies can be done and what should be done in Guangdong province where we believe this disease emerged," he said.
"There are some feelings that possibly live game markets might have been associated with some of the earlier cases, but this is only a hypothesis, it is nothing concrete," Heymann added during a telephone news conference.
Mice and monkeys were being used in laboratory research into the disease according to WHO.
Some research into possible vectors had touched on cockroaches, which involved finding if the virus stuck onto the insects.
The issue of research into animals and transmission of Sars was likely to be broached among other issues during a meeting of epidemiologists organised by the WHO in Geneva on Friday and Saturday, Heymann said.
Heymann noted that the outbreak in Guangdong appeared to be down to about five new cases a day, indicating that efforts to control it there were effective.
The province had recorded the highest number of Sars cases in China in the first quarter of 2003.
There have been 5 124 cases of Sars in mainland China, with 3 043 people probably suffering from the pneumonia-like disease there at the moment, according to WHO data.