I picked this article which carry the same title published in the Star a couple of months ago. I believe this is a good write-up and wish to share with every animal lovers...hope you will benefit from it. This is the exact text, no amendment or editting...happy reading...
Children in families with pets should always practise proper hygiene to avoid animal-borne infections, noted Ulrich Fegeler.
The spokesman for the Cologne-based Professional Association of Children and Young People's Physicians (BVKJ) added that this is more pertinent now with the H1N1 alert.
He said that children should wash their hands regularly after handling pets, keep the animals off the dining table and beds, and refrain from kissing or being licked by them.
Feeding pets and cleaning their cages should be left to older children who have mastered good hygiene.
Fegeler said children under five years of age should have no contact with turtles and other reptiles, young birds, young cats and dogs, and animals with diarrhoea because of the risk of infection.
"Young dogs or cats infected by their mother with Toxocara worms can excrete their eggs with faeces." Fegeler pointed out. The worms cause toxocariasts, a disease whose symptoms in children are fever, a swollen liver and eye disorders.
"Reptiles and chicks may carry salmonella on the surface of their bodies," which causes severe diarrhoea, especially in children, he warned.
Pets should be taken regularly to a veterinarian for deworming and proper immunisations. And all pet bites and large scratches must be treated by physician.
"Parents should be especially careful with stray, exotic or previously wild animals because they can carry diseases," Fegeler said. Wild mice, for example may be infected with hantaviruses, which can disrupt kidney function - dpa.
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