Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

sciencenews.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 165 posts

Re: A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

#81

Post by voakbasda »

Guthwine wrote: post #56
aa-jv wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pets are slaves. Stop trying to own emotions.

Genuinely curious - are sheep kept for their wool also slaves in your opinion?

There is a ballot measure this Fall in Oregon that would ban pet and livestock ownership in the state. The backers got over 100,000 people to sign the petition.

There are people that either simply do not understand the natural order that the majority of humans want to eat meat and keep pets, or they do not care about other people enough to respect their lifestyle choices.

Re: A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

#82

Post by AdamN »

MisterTea wrote: post #15

> “I’m convinced that half of the human cases that come from cats are people who are trying to stuff pills down their cat’s throats to treat the sporotrichosis,” Do yourself a favor, crush the pill and put it in food. Problem solved. Difficult with multiple cats but I had two and one needed medication so I put this little guys on a window sill he loved to perch on which the other cat didn't care to reach.

I may be crazy but I feel like we shouldn't be giving medicine to animals with communicable diseases (unless the medicine reduces the chances of animal->human transmission). We're just reducing the effectiveness of these medicines over time.

Re: A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

#83

Post by aitchnyu »

nDRDY wrote: post #68
greenavocado wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is highly effective at killing Sporothrix fungi, including Sporothrix brasiliensis HOCl is the best non-toxic broad spectrum human compatible antimicrobial. I have been using it in many household applications since COVID started. It can be prepared by electrolysis of acidified (e.g. vinegar, but ideally pH 5.5, and inorganic acids make it last way longer at that pH, but they are more dangerou…

"AI Overview" blithely tells me HOCL can be easily made from the electrolysis of salt water. Looking even a little deeper (Wikipedia) confirms that chlorine chemistry, especially when combined with electrolysis, is very complex, and it's hard to know if you're making the right thing. FWIW every sensible electrolysis-based DIY project has dire warnings about electrolysing solutions of common salt.

Looks like HOCL generators are household appliances now.

Re: A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

#84

Post by drdexebtjl »

elzbardico wrote: post #51

Please note that this is an extremely rare disease even in Brazil, where it came from. Asked my vet, and two cousins who also are vets, and all of them knew of the disease from scientific literature and government health bulletins, but only one of them had treated two actual cases, when he lived in northeastern region: two strays. Brasil must have something like between 40 and 50 million cats (including strays). An i…

There’s also not enough data to say the number of human cases has been growing YOY because compulsory notification in Brazil only started in 2025.

Re: A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

#85

Post by drdexebtjl »

happyopossum wrote: post #80

So a disease that has killed 11,000 people in a country with a population of >200 million over 30 years is a ‘ginormous outbreak’? This kind of hyper-scary overreaction from the CDC official being quoted and other government agents is a big cause of the current loss of trust in those institutions. A few years ago monkeypox was gonna kill all of us and our dogs, I get “extreme heat” and “severe weather” warnings for d…

Infected 11,000, not killed.

From what I can tell, deaths are in the dozens (over 30 years).

I’m worried about the cats, though.

Re: A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

#86

Post by greenavocado »

nDRDY wrote: post #68
greenavocado wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is highly effective at killing Sporothrix fungi, including Sporothrix brasiliensis HOCl is the best non-toxic broad spectrum human compatible antimicrobial. I have been using it in many household applications since COVID started. It can be prepared by electrolysis of acidified (e.g. vinegar, but ideally pH 5.5, and inorganic acids make it last way longer at that pH, but they are more dangerou…

"AI Overview" blithely tells me HOCL can be easily made from the electrolysis of salt water. Looking even a little deeper (Wikipedia) confirms that chlorine chemistry, especially when combined with electrolysis, is very complex, and it's hard to know if you're making the right thing. FWIW every sensible electrolysis-based DIY project has dire warnings about electrolysing solutions of common salt.

> it's hard to know if you're making the right thing

In this case, it's not complicated

Re: A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

#87

Post by thoughtpalette »

MisterTea wrote: post #15

> “I’m convinced that half of the human cases that come from cats are people who are trying to stuff pills down their cat’s throats to treat the sporotrichosis,” Do yourself a favor, crush the pill and put it in food. Problem solved. Difficult with multiple cats but I had two and one needed medication so I put this little guys on a window sill he loved to perch on which the other cat didn't care to reach.

Pill pocket treats have been great for this exact purpose.

Re: A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

#88

Post by Finnucane »

MisterTea wrote: post #15

> “I’m convinced that half of the human cases that come from cats are people who are trying to stuff pills down their cat’s throats to treat the sporotrichosis,” Do yourself a favor, crush the pill and put it in food. Problem solved. Difficult with multiple cats but I had two and one needed medication so I put this little guys on a window sill he loved to perch on which the other cat didn't care to reach.

When I had to give my cats thyroid pills, I mushed them into soft treats. This generally worked, but sometimes took a couple of tries. But this trick only works if the cat wants the treat more than they don't want the pill. A dog can be tricked into thinking the pill is the treat.

Flavored pill compounding is apparently also an option, but I've never tried it.

Re: A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

#89

Post by Finnucane »

thoughtpalette wrote: post #87
MisterTea wrote: post #15

> “I’m convinced that half of the human cases that come from cats are people who are trying to stuff pills down their cat’s throats to treat the sporotrichosis,” Do yourself a favor, crush the pill and put it in food. Problem solved. Difficult with multiple cats but I had two and one needed medication so I put this little guys on a window sill he loved to perch on which the other cat didn't care to reach.

Pill pocket treats have been great for this exact purpose.

None of my cats would eat those. Regular soft cat treats have always worked better.

Re: A deadly fungus that can infect cats and people is spreading

#90

Post by curiousthought »

userulluipeste wrote: post #46
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #7

Reminds me of the TV Series "The Last of us" [0], which: "... is set decades after the collapse of society caused by a mass fungal infection that transforms its hosts into zombie-like creatures". Of course, minus the zombies. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_Us_(TV_series)

We are lucky that mass epidemics that plagued humans so far didn't affect the brain. Affections like rabies, that require individuals biting each other, and which are the inspirational source of all those zombie fantasies, do not count. That is an attack vector easy to spot and manage. The scary scenario is the one like with this Sporothrix Brasiliensis fungus, which can spread by merely "sneezing out the infectious…

Toxoplasma gondii affects animal behavior, I don't think it's a stretch to think it (or something similar) could affect humans in some way we haven't measured yet.
Post reply on HN