MRSA from animals??

I guess it's possible, animals and humans have shared many illnesses for years. But it's scary to think one of my precious baby dogs could hurt someone!

I guess it's possible, animals and humans have shared many illnesses for years. But it's scary to think one of my precious baby dogs could hurt someone!

i know i thought of the same thing about my kitty. i just can't picture it .. my lydia kitty wouldn't do that!! when i first became a nurse 25 years ago, you never heard of animal to human tranmission . i always heard their DNA was so different it couldn't happen .. but that was wrong, look at HIV , Ebola, swine flu ( which isn't swine anymore..lol) and other's ... so it is possible !! i thought it was interesting !!!

It's not as uncommon as you would think. During an infection control conference we spent a good amount of time going over cases where a patient tested positive for MRSA in the hospital, got cleared, went home and developed it again. Turns out their pets were tested and found to be carrying it. I don't know who first thought to test pets, but they were thinking outside the box on that.

There's an article in the June, 2009 isue of RN magazine about MRSA which indicates that in the UK, up to 10% of veterinary staff are colonized. The occurance of MRSA in companion animals is unknown, but one small study revealed colonization in up to 10% of dogs and 15% of healthy cats. Another study revealed a pet therapy dog in the hospital picked up MRSA on its fur.

nearly 30 years ago, they knew that strep could be carried by dogs.....