Prof. Olanike Adeyemo, a former deputy vice-chancellor on Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at the University of Ibadan has explained why pregnant women should avoid cats.
This explanation was given by the professor during an interview with The PUNCH.
According to the former deputy vice-chancellor, cats can transmit a disease that causes abortion.
She said;
Women should not be in contact with a cat’s litter if they are pregnant. It also causes some changes and makes babies defective. But a combination of many factors makes disease transmission occur. If your level of immunity is high, you may not be down when others who are in the same place as you are down. We also have some people who do not believe in vaccines and those ones are usually the weaklings.
‘Toxoplasmosis is usually harmless, but in rare cases, it can lead to serious problems and cats spread the parasite via their faeces. Women are more at risk if they get infected in pregnancy. Toxoplasmosis can cause miscarriage. If it spreads to a woman’s baby it can cause serious complications, especially if she caught it early in pregnancy’.