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Old 03-20-2017, 01:06 PM  
InkyPen
Hamster Pup
 
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Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: London, UK
Posts: 241
Default Re: Hamster To Human Transmitted Diseases

If you're very young, very old, pregnant or immuno-compromised, then I would be more careful - but I'd say that about many animals and many situations!

For the rest of us though, standard hygiene is going to be fine. Indeed, there is evidence that children who live on farms - surrounded by animals and muck - are less likely to develop allergies! Are we too clean for our own good? - NHS Choices I'm not advocating living in a hovel, but we do all need at least some exposure to dirt.

Hamster zoonoses are not something to put too high on life's list of dangers IMHO. You're in far more danger every time you drive down the road from texting drivers, drunk drivers, crap drivers, your own crap driving, road conditions, mechanical malfunction etc. etc.

For stats - in the UK (population 64,000,000), between 2005 and 2014 there were a total of 11 cases of hantavirus - about one a year https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...eport-2014.pdf

Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis doesn't get a mention in the above report on zoonoses in the UK (which does rather suggest it's not a noticeable problem), but wikipedia seems to suggest it's only really a significant danger if you have pest rodents running around your pet rodents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lympho...ngitis_in_pets

You are quite literally more likely to be struck by lightning - on average, 29 people a year are struck by lightning in the UK, with approximately 2 deaths a year https://www.rmets.org/sites/default/...2013-elsom.pdf
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