UK teen catches TB from pet kitten
AAP
March 29, 2014, 6:18 pm
A British teenager developed pneumonia and has been rushed to hospital for treatment for severe lung damage after she contracted tuberculosis from her pet kitten.
Jessica Livings, 19, had to have emergency surgery after she caught TB, in what health officials say is among the first cases in the world of humans picking up the disease from cats.
Ms Livings' mother Claire also contracted a dormant form of the disease, the Daily Mail said.
It is thought the pair contracted TB when they were cleaning a wound on their pet, Onyx, which they had adopted only weeks before.
"I lost a stone and a half in five weeks, I was very ill and had fevers, cold sweats and hallucinations," Ms Livings told the newspaper.
She was reportedly diagnosed with the disease in October after a vet voiced concerns over an outbreak of TB among cats in the the Newbury area of Berkshire.
Ms Livings was readmitted to the Royal Berkshire Hospital last month, but is now classed as being at no risk of passing TB on.
Her mother told the Mail that their kitten became ill and they discovered he had an open wound on his belly. Despite taking him to the vet he died, but they had no idea it was TB.
Vet Carl Gorman, who reported the outbreak, told the Mail he believed it started with a local herd of cows contracting bovine TB.
