
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 8, 1994                   TAG: 9404080056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Short

CDC: CATS CAUSING PLAGUE IN HUMANS

Cats that roam newly suburbanized areas in the Southwest are a growing source of human plague, federal health officials warned Thursday.

Before 1977, domestic cats were not known to transmit human plague, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. But since then, they have been identified as carriers in at least 15 cases.

Cats can pick up the disease from infected fleas or rodents and pass it on when they bite, scratch or lick humans. About half of infected cats die, but the disease rarely is fatal in people.

The increase in cat transmission to humans is linked to the suburbanization of the Southwest, where the plague is commonly found, said Kenneth Gage of the CDC's plague section.

Plague is unlikely to spread east of the mid-Plains states because the rodents carrying the bacteria don't live outside semi-arid regions, Gage said.

by CNB