Ringworm from cat to human transmission is commonly seen to happen. If you are a cat owner and wondering the issue, I am here to provide you useful information on it.
Sometimes cat parents become confused with the occurrence of ring worms if they see any lesion on the skin surface of the cat. Because, there are some other skin diseases that could resemble the symptoms of ring worm in cats. So, you need to be familiar with the those signs and symptom in order to avoid those confusions.
Then many question can arise from fear if the cats need to be isolated from everyone else. Can it require to disinfectant the entire surface area of the home or can it be a kind life threatening issue for the family members?
However, my first word as a veterinarian, don’t get so much worried. It’s a harmful disease, no doubt, but the good news is that it is completely curable.
In this guide I’ll try to focus how ringworm transmit from cat to human along with other relevant issues step by step.
So, keep reading until the end.
First of all let us know what is ringworm in cats?
What is ringworm in cats?
The foremost basic question I would like to ask to my audience – is the ringworm a kind of worm?
Actually the reason why I asked you, many medical term are there which sounds confusing and misleading. The term ringworm is one of those which are most frequently misunderstood by the people.
As the name suggest, many people think it as a worm, a kind parasite that cause diseases.
But the reality is that it’s a kind of fungal infection caused by dermatophytes, a specialized group of fungus. So the medical term of the disease became dermatophytosis.
Besides this, the name derived from the ‘ring’ like appearance of the lesion causing a red, round and raised boundary in the affected skin of your cat.
It is important to note that, some types of dermatophytes are characterized as species-specific. It means one species of this group can infect only one species of animal. They don’t have effect on other species.
But other types can transmitted between different species.
In case of cat, only one species of dermatophytes is the causal agent for almost all ringworm cases. This particular species is capable to infect dogs and even human being.
Can the spread of ringworm from cat to human occurs?
Firstly let’s discuss how ringworm is transmitted.
How ringworm is transmitted in cats?
As you know ringworm is a highly contagious infection, it is transmitted through direct contact with affected person.
By touching the contaminated surfaces or objects, ringworm transmission also can occur.
The fungal spores can survive on the environmental surfaces and can be the source of infection.
Even, they can remain as dormant form on your home furniture, bedding materials, carpet, brushes, combs or other in animate objects where the infected animals make contact or used by them.
The fungal spore can survive over there up to 18 months as latent phase.
However, making contact with ringworm doesn’t produce disease in all the cases. This depends on the amount of organism remains over there as an infective dose that can result in infection.
How cats get infected with ringworms?
You already got know that it is not a parasite that causes ring worm in animals. It’s a kind of fungus belongs to dermatophytes group responsible for causation of ringworm.
There are many fungal species under this group. However, for cat ringworm infection, the species Microsporum canis is responsible.
Now come to the point exactly how a healthy cat can get ringworm? In the above, I made a overall discussion about the mode of transmission or ringworm.
In similar way, cats can get infected with ringworm either by direct contact with affected cats or other susceptible animals.
The contaminated environmental objects such as bedding materials, food and water bowls, combs etc can also be another major source of transmitting ring worm in your cats.
This is surprising that, the fungal spore can survive up to 18 months in the environment. During this whole duration of time, they can play the role as source of infection for getting ringworm in your cat.
So, these are the ways how, your cat can get infected with ringworm.
Now come to main point again – ringworm from cat to human transmission, how that can take place?
Read more – Symptoms of the cat flu: All you need to know!
Is ringworm from cat to human possible?
Firstly you should know its zoonotic disease. Means, the disease can transmit from animal to human or human to animals.
So, now you got the clear answer that the transmission of ringworm from cat to human is possible and occurring frequently over the time.
Now, another relevant question can arise – how that transmission of ringworm can happen from cat to human?
The answer is quite easy. If you read the above content, you already got know how that take place.
One important thing I ‘d like to mention that once you come in contact with your beloved cats you should maintain a bit distance with her regardless the health condition of your cat. Even if the cats seemed to you quite healthy, but you don’t know if your cat already become carrier of the disease.
However, ringworm has got special affinity towards children. They become infected with this easily. So, you must take necessary measures to decrease the exposure of fungus from the infected cats.
At the same, those people who are immunologically weak are more susceptible to ringworm infection.
The good news is, the prognosis of ringworm infection either cats or human is very good. The treatment responds very well with the existing available drugs.
But, the alarming thing is that, the fungus causing ringworm can remain infectious in the environment up to 18 months.
Conclusion
The ringworm in cat and human is one of the most common disease throughout the world. Though the disease is curable, but you might face a lot of sufferings from this disease. So, always ensure hygienic environment at your home that can reduce the risks associated with the disease.
Please feel free to ask me any question in the comment box regarding ringworm from cat to human or any relevant issues about it.
