>From: "Cindy" <[log in to unmask]>
>
>Do I need to be worried now about interaction with any ferrets or what?
>The last thing I want to do is make anyone sick!  We saw them for the
>first time last weekend and we just saw them again yesterday.  If they
>were going to get sick from me handling them, would it have manifested
>itself by now?  Just what I need, something more to second guess myself
>about!
 
Honestly, since the cause is unknown there is no way to know.  It may be
that there are infectious microbes on your shoes, pocketbook, or something
else, then again there might not be.  Yes, you might pose an infection
risk.  You might not.  No way to know.  One of the "rules" of epidemiology
(which would govern epizooics, too) is that when dealing with an disease
that has an unknown cause there is an isolation component as well as a
cleansing one.  If the ferrets there break with something that looks like
what your guys had then we know that whatever it is it is casually
contagious (not requiring exchange of fluids, feces, etc.) and does not
require direct contact (can pass on clothing and the like instead of just
animal-to-animal).  Because absence of evidence is not evidence of
absence, if they do not become infected it may still be something that
can pass easily but just wasn't passed that way in this case.  (Remember
how years of research were required before anyone felt safe mentioning
that HIV doesn't pass by casual contact?  It takes a lot of trials with a
lot of individuals to know for sure.)
 
Different diseases take different lengths of time after exposure before
they present with symptoms: some days, some weeks, some longer still.
Some diseases are infectious before symptoms begin, some during, some
after, some during multiple periods in the infection.
 
---
 
Previously Yahoo had announced several days when Yahoogroups will be down
only on http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/, but today that announcement is also
on http://groups.yahoo.com/.  They will be moving servers to a different
facility.
 
"Groups will be down for scheduled maintenance Friday Mar 15 9PM PST
(GMT-8).  We expect to restore service the morning of Sunday Mar 17."
 
and
 
"During this time the web site will be unavailable and email will not be
delivered.  (Some users may experience email non-delivery notices, but
all email should be delivered once service has resumed.)  Please note:
once the service is back up, there will be email delays due to backlog.
We expect these delays to last no longer than 1 day.  Please do not
re-send email to your group as it will only add to delays."
 
Sukie
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list
http://geocities.com/sukielist
[Posted in FML issue 3720]