Humans can infect cats with Covid-19; Becareful playing with them

Children have been cautioned to be extra careful in playing with cats now that there is a Covid-19 pandemic.

This is because studies have now confirmed that animals from the cat family have certain properties  that could make them get infected with the disease.If children still want to play with their cats, then they must make sure that they wash their hands before and after playing with the animals, use hand sanitisers and wear nose masks in order to protect themselves as well as their cats from the virus.

A Wildlife Veterinary Specialist and Lecturer at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Richard Suu-Ire, who gave the caution in an interview with the Junior Graphic, stated that since the outbreak of  Covid-19, a lot of studies had been done to find out whether or not the virus could infect animals and now studies had established as a fact that infected human beings could give Covid-19 to animals in the cat family.

However, he said what scientists did not know from the studies  was whether or not a cat infected with Covid-19 could pass the virus to human beings,  adding that that was why it was important that children did not play too much with their cats now.

“The cat family has certain genes the virus can get attached to and cause the infection in them. For other animals we don’t know yet, not even dogs. But for cats, it is now for sure that they can get infected with Covid-19 and that is why if you have a cat in your house, this is the time to be extra careful,” he pointed out.

Animals in the cat family include big cats and small cats. The big cats include lions, tigers and leopard while the small cats include domestic cats, Civet cat and Serval cats, otherwise known as bush cats.

Dr Suu-Ire explained that a case of Covid-19 was confirmed in tigers and since tigers were from the cat family, it meant that all other cats could get the virus because they have the same receptors (genes).

Touching on the importance of protecting themselves when playing with cats, Dr Suu-Ire said most of the people who had so far tested positive for Covid-19 in Ghana were asymptomatic, meaning they did not show signs of the disease, as such they, the children, or their family members might not know they have the virus and consequently transfer it to the cats.

Throwing more light on other general precautionary measures children should take in order not to get infections from their pets, Dr Suu-Ire said when cleaning the sleeping places of animals, children should make sure they did not spread the toilet of the animals on themselves because it was one of the areas diseases were transferred from animals to human beings.

He added that children should also ensure that the sleeping places of the animals were disinfected regularly and cautioned against children sleeping with their pets.

He said pets should have their own sleeping place.