Pets 'could trigger fatal diseases'
Under-fives could catch potentially fatal diseases if they make pets out of hedgehogs, hamsters, baby chicks, lizards and turtles, top children's doctors said.
In a new report about dangers from exotic animals, the doctors say the creatures can carry dangerous and sometimes potentially deadly germs.
Children under five are particularly at risk, the report by the American Academy of Paediatrics says, because exotic pets may be more prone to bite, scratch or claw.
Young children are vulnerable because of developing immune systems and because they often put their hands in their mouths, the doctors said.
The report, which appears in the October edition of the group's medical journal, Paediatrics, also says young children should avoid contact with these animals in petting zoos or other public places.
"Many parents clearly don't understand the risks from various infections these animals often carry," said Dr Larry Pickering, the report's lead author and an infectious disease specialist at the US government's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
For example, about 11% of salmonella illnesses in children were thought to stem from contact with lizards, turtles and other reptiles, Dr Pickering said. Hamsters can also carry this germ, which can cause severe diarrhoea, fever and stomach cramps.
Salmonella has also been found in chicks and young children can get it by kissing or touching the animals and then putting their hands in their mouths, he said.
Study co-author Dr Joseph Bocchini said he recently treated an infant who got salmonella from the family's pet iguana, which was allowed to roam freely in the home.
The child was in hospital for four weeks but had now recovered, said Dr Bocchini, head of the academy's infectious diseases committee and paediatrics chairman at Louisiana State University in Shreveport.
