Is the new health alert called raccoon ringworm as big a threat as the swine flu?”
Parents should be on alert for raccoon roundworm, a rare parasite transmitted through contact with the animal’s feces, which has left an infant with brain damage and a teenager blind, says New York City’s health department. Raccoon roundworm is an extremely rare parasitic infection in humans that can cause nausea, nerve damage and even death. People become infected by swallowing the parasite’s eggs that are shed in the feces of infected raccoons. Parents should supervise children to keep them away from raccoon feces, a spokeswoman for the city’s health department, said Monday. Note that raccoon roundworm has been mistakenly called ringworm by some media outlets. Any droppings should be picked up using gloves and disposed of in trash bags. There are fewer than 30 cases reported in the medical literature, the city noted in a health alert it sent to the city’s doctors on April 9.
As the city works to recover from a swine flu outbreak that turned out to not be so bad, New Yorkers have a new disease to worry about. And this one can be deadly. The rare disease, raccoon roundworm, has been found in Brooklyn, according to the Daily News. The city’s health department is on high alert for the illness, which is contracted through raccoon feces and attacks the nervous system, causing permanent nerve damage. It can also be fatal. Less than 30 cases of the raccoon disease have been reported nationwide, but the illness has affected two people in New York in the last year, reports the Daily News. In October, a healthy baby who had traveled to upstate New York began experiencing seizures and spinal complications. The child has since been hospitalized with brain damage. Then a Brooklyn teen was blinded in his right eye in January. It usually takes two to four weeks before symptoms such as nausea, blindness and loss of muscle control develop, which can make the disease more di
