Cat scratch fever — also called cat scratch disease (CSD) – is a bacterial infection people contract from cats infected with Bartonella henselae bacteria. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year in the United States, 12,000 people are diagnosed with CSD, and 500 people are hospitalized with it. Cases surge in January and in the period between August and November.
Anyone who interacts with a cat is at risk of contracting CSD. The disease is most prevalent in the southern part of the United States, and is most common among children between the ages of 5 and 9 years old. Males are hospitalized more often than females, though more females are diagnosed.
Causes
You typically get CSD from a bite or scratch from an infected cat. You can also get the disease if saliva from an infected cat gets into an open wound or touches the whites of your eyes. You can also get the disease from a flea or a tick carrying the bacterium.
Cats can get infected with B. henselae from flea bites and flea droppings getting into their wounds. By scratching and biting at the fleas, cats pick up the infected flea dirt under their nails and between their teeth. Cats can also become infected by fighting with other cats that are infected.
The germ spreads to people when infected cats bite or scratch a person hard enough to break their skin. It can also spread when infected cats lick at wounds or scabs that you may have.
Symptoms
Common symptoms of CSD in people include:
- a bump or blister at the bite or scratch site
- swollen lymph nodes near the bite or scratch site
- fatigue
- headaches
- a low-grade fever, between just above 98.6°F but below 100.4°F
- body aches
A bump or blister may develop on the skin at the site of infection 3 to 10 days after exposure. Other symptoms, such as swollen lymph nodes, may not occur for several days or weeks. Swollen lymph nodes typically occur between 1 and 3 weeks.
When To Call A Doctor
Many cases of CSD resolve on their own, but some cases still require a doctor. Call a doctor if you or your child have been scratched or bitten by a cat and experience these symptoms:
- swollen or painful lymph nodes
- the injury doesn’t seem to be healing after a few days
- redness around the wound is expanding
- a fever develops a few days after the bite
Additional Tests Available
The diagnosis should be considered in patients bitten by a tick or flea or scratched by small animals and are experiencing any of the symptoms typical of Bartonella infections, even mild ones. Patients should be examined by their healthcare professional.
Healthcare professionals will use clinical symptoms along with laboratory tests to find out whether a patient has CSD or perhaps some other tick-borne infection(s).
Click here on how to order a test kit from IGeneX. Test kits can be ordered by both patients and physicians.
FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS: Click here for more information on the type of diagnostic tests for Bartonella infections, including cat scratch disease. In addition, physicians may want to consider having blood tested for other possible causes of their patient’s symptoms, including other tick-borne infections, such as Lyme disease.
Sources
- https://www.healthline.com/health/cat-scratch-disease
- https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/diseases/cat-scratch.html
- https://igenex.com/tick-talk/bartonellosis-disease/
