Anyone See This (parrot fever)

[MoluccanZoey]

Guy died from psittacosis, after getting a cockatiel at petsmart.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=5275452&page=1

[bonnie]

Wow! That's crazy! Maybe we all should think about putting 'bird owner' in our medical files. Just incase...

[too&me]

Just makes you wonder where the exposure originated? It seems both Petco and Petsmart have had disease & hygiene related problems lately. My heart goes out to the family and the birds involved, it did not have to happen.

[Larry, Baby and Me]

This I didn't know...

Lethality: The mortality rate for untreated psittacosis ranges from 15-20%. However, with appropriate treatment, the mortality rate drops to less than 1%.

http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/edc/edrp/es/pdf/psittacosisset.pdf

Lar

[FoxersArtist]

I worked with a budgie once who had parrot fever. I took nearly 6 months of round after round of antibiotics to kill the disease nd I have read that even still, the bird can be a carrier for life. Everything that I have read about the disease is that the only way it is transmitted to people is through eating or breathing feces or swapping bodily fluids. I would be willing to bet that if both dad and daughter got it, they were exposed to LOTS of dry poop. Here is an important reason to clean cages regularly so that it does not pile up on the bottom of the cage. My heart goes out to the family...so sad to lose a father and feel forced into giving up all of your birds too.
-Anna

[Larry, Baby and Me]

I didn't know that it can kill you. I thought a human got some flu like symptoms and a runny nose... but it can do more than that.

[iti hoa's mom]

Additional information.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/psittacosis_t.htm

The disease use to be reported to the health department on individual case basis. Now it is just reported as an occurance.

It is not just parrots that you get the disease from. You can also get it from poultry.

[MoluccanZoey]

I would just take it as another thing I "could" get from my pets. You can get the flu from ferrets (as well as T.B.). (and it passes to-from, that's why ferrets are big in animal research). So I can get TB from them, rabies from the sugergliders (dogs/cats). Salamonlia from the reptiles. Lovely. Not to mention worms, ticks, fleas and what they carry.
SO! The mammals are on flea/tick prevention (except indoor ferrets lol). Everyone gets their shots and goes to the vet once a year. EVERYTHING is cleaned daily and I wash my hands alot. My only really "bad" habit is that I bite my nails. :p My prof. in micro almost killed me over that. :haha: But you can get many things from your pets, if you aren't careful. Just better to clean lots and not take chances! (or at least lower them).