When I was an aspiring Infectious Disease fellow, I marveled at how the ID doctors would come up with diseases that no one else had thought of. How did they do that?

They obtain a detailed patient history. (It’s the ID doctors equivalent of a procedure!)

Contact or exposure to certain animals are associated with certain diseases.

These are examples of some of the questions to ask to ascertain whether your patient has been in contact with specific animals:
– Do you have any pets? Do you have frequent contact with anyone else’s pets?
– Do you have contact with any farm or wild animals?
– What do you do for work (farmer, veterinarian, kennel worker, biologists, etc)?
– What do you do for fun (hunting, fishing, cave explorer, raising chickens, etc)?

I’ve created an easy graphic to give you an idea of some diseases that are associated with different animals your patients might encounter. This is to help you quickly look up which infections you should consider in your differential if your patient reports an exposure to one of these animals.

*This list does not include ALL pathogens. This is just a list of the most common plus others to think about in certain situations. In places outside of North America, this list may look
different.
**This is not intended to take the place of a formal infectious disease consult.
***Use this chart in the context of the clinical presentation. It does not mean you should test for all these infections in every patient, but rather gives you a quick reminder to consider them in your differential.

Was this helpful? Did I miss something? Tell me what you’re thinking with a comment!

References:

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Healthy Pets Healthy People. http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/pets/cats.html (Accessed on Feb 23, 2019).
2. Day MJ. Pet-Related Infections. Am Fam Physician. 2016; 94(10):794-802.
3. Goldstein EJC and Abrahamian FM. Diseases Transmitted by Cats. Microbiol Spectr. 2015; 3(5).
4. Chomel BB. Emerging and Re-emerging Zoonoses of Dogs and Cats. Animals (Basel). 2014; 4(3):434-445.
5. Dyer JL, Yager P, Orciari L et al. Rabies surveillance in the United States during 2013. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2014; 245(10):1111-1123.
6. Boseret G, Losson B, Mainil JG, et al. Zoonoses in pet birds: review and perspectives. Vet Res. 2013; 44(1): 36.
7. Kwon-Chung KJ, Fraser JA, Doering TL, et al. Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii, the Etiologic Agents of Cryptococcosis. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2014; 4(7):a019760.
8. National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians, Inc. (NASPHV), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Compendium of measures to prevent disease associated with animals in public settings, 2011: National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians, Inc. MMWR Recomm Rep 2011; 60:1.
9. Kotton CN. Zoonoses from pets other than dogs and cats. UpToDate. Published Jan 2019. Accessed on Feb 23, 2019.