Print This Article Post Comment Add To Favorites Email to Friends Ezine Ready

What Diseases Can Carpet Fleas Cause?

By: Tom Dahne Home | Home-and-Family | Pets


As I brought up earlier about behavior of carpet fleas, they are the chinches of pets, farm animals and human beings. These are laterally flattened and flightless insects. Carpet fleas can move rapidly through jumping, using their legs and a spring-like mechanism in the bodies. They are capable of spectacular leaps, covering distances adequate to one hundred times their bodies length.

Carpet fleas will feed upon humans and attacks come when the fleas are denied access to their normal host. Humans are most at risk from being bitten by fleas while removing infested pests from the home such as mice or or rats or birds in the roofing. Humans are generally bitten around the ankles and on the lower legs. Skin can become itchy, inflamed and swollen. Skin irritations are caused by flea spittle injected into the body during the feeding process to keep the blood coagulating. Infections may grow whenever the bites are itched, even worse, fleas could send parasites and serious diseases to pets and humans. The deadliest disease that can be spread by a flea is the plague.

Plague is a disease from rodents that can be passed on to humans and other animals infected by fleas. In humans, the plague has 3 forms:

Bubonic plague causes the lymph glands infection
Septicemia plague causes an infection of the blood
Pneumonic plague causes an infection of the lungs

Pneumonic plague is the most infectious variety because it can be spread from one individual to another in airborne droplets.

The plague is potentially a critical disease caused by an infection of the bacteria known as Yersenia Pestis. The term plague has great historical importance including three major pandemics such as the devastating black plague (Black Death) of the Middle Ages. Since its establishment in the United States at the turn of the century, plague has been a continual concern in California, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. In the world, there are a thousand or more cases reported each year. In the eighties an epidemic plague occurred annually in Africa, Asia, or South America.

The septicemia and bubonic plague were transferred from direct contact with a infected fleas carrying the plague disease, while the pneumonic plague was transferred through airborne droplets of saliva coughed out by bubonic or septicemia infected people.

Domestic cats and dogs are readily infected by carpet fleas or from eating contaminated wild rodents. Infected cats and dogs may serve as the root cause of an infection to persons exposed to them. Animals could also bring plague-infected fleas into the home.

When a person is bitten from an infected flea or infected by handling an infected animal, the plague bacteria moves through the bloodstream to the lymph nodes. The lymph nodes swell, forming the painful lumps ("buboes") that are features of bubonic plague. Additional symptoms are fever, headache, chills, and extreme fatigue. Some people may also have gastrointestinal symptoms.

If bubonic plague stays untreated, then the bacteria can breed in the bloodstream and cause plague septicemia, life-threatening blood infection. Signs and symptoms are fever, chills, fatigue, abdominal pains, shock, and bleeding into the skin of other organs. Left untreated septicemia (blood poisoning) plague is generally fatal.

Pneumonic plague, or plague pneumonia, produced when the bacteria infects the lungs. People who are infected by plague pneumonia experience high fever, chills, difficulty breathing, coughing, and bloody phlegm. Plague pneumonia is considered as a real health emergency since a cough can spread the disease to other people quickly. Left untreated pneumonic plague is usually fatal.



Article Source: http://www.eArticlesOnline.com

About the Author:
Article Written By: Tom Dahne

Read more about fleas and how to kill carpet fleas for good and stop getting carpet fleas again, visit http://www.carpetfleas.com


Tags: , , ,

Please Rate this Article

 

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Pets Articles Via RSS!

Recent Related Articles From Pets

  • Common Questions About Carpet Fleas
    By: Tom Dahne | Mar 15th 2009
    We have read a lot of information about carpet fleas, such as what causes fleas to get in to your carpeting, how to get rid of fleas, and how to prevent getting carpet fleas, but there are still common questions that people ask about carpet fleas. Here are some common questions and the answers below. Read

  • How To Avoid Your Pets Getting Fleas
    By: Tom Dahne | Mar 17th 2009
    A lot of fleas at home will make life miserable for you and your pets. Since pets are the most causes of carpet fleas, it is easier to avoid a flea problem than to eliminate a big flea problem. Read

  • Understanding The Type Of Carpet Fleas And Their Behavior
    By: Tom Dahne | Apr 5th 2009
    Flea is the common name for a few of the tiny flightless insects of the Siphonaptera (numerous authorities use the name Aphaniptera because it is older, but names above class rank do not need to follow the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) rules of priority, and so most of taxonomy experts apply ... Read

  • What Causes Carpet Fleas
    By: Tom Dahne | Mar 31st 2009
    Carpeting, is one of the most common selections for floor covering, it gives a lot of benefits to members of the family at home. Carpeting is the most beneficial selection you can make when you would like to cover the floor in your bedroom, family room, and other living areas wherever you want warmth under your feet. Ca ... Read

  • Carpet Fleas - How To Kill Carpet Fleas For Good
    By: Tom Dahne | Apr 26th 2009
    In the past and still nowadays, carpeting is really common and is the most practical, stylish, and flexible selection of flooring out there, since it also accounts for a higher degree of all flooring purchases that are made each and every year. A lot of people prefer carpeting for their homes. It gives warmth, safety, a ... Read

  • Preventing Carpet Fleas
    By: Tom Dahne | Mar 27th 2009
    Getting rid of fleas in your home will take a lot of effort. Once fleas are gone from your home, you must keep your carpeting clean to prevent your house from another flea attack. Remember that getting rid of fleas from inside your home is more work than preventing fleas from entering your house in the first place. Read

  • Chemical Methods To Prevent Carpet Fleas
    By: Tom Dahne | Apr 27th 2009
    Unfortunately, fleas have become extremely resistant to the most natural products. In addition to natural methods, there are likewise some extreme treatment methods to get rid of fleas by using chemical products for your carpeting. The following tips will help you to get rid of fleas in your carpeting effectively. Read

  • Learn The Methods To Wipe Out Carpet Fleas
    By: Tom Dahne | Apr 21st 2009
    There are so many methods to wipe out or prevent fleas. Some are handled by chemical products. Several are natural. These two methods work on varying levels. Sometimes you must use more then one method to have the right effects to kill the fleas. Several formulas have good results for indoor, but are not as effective fo ... Read

  • A History Of Pest Control London-00-248
    By: 4Ps_Marketing | Mar 10th 2009
    Only in 2002, people around the world went into a panic as it was reported that 2 people had been hospitalised in New York City... Read

  • Got Fleas? 7 Easy Ways To Get Rid Of Them

    Fleas are pesky critters that can transmit a variety of diseases and illnesses and make life miserable for your pet as well. Getting rid of these pests is essential for a healthy, happy home for all of its two-legged and four-legged inhabitants. Here are seven easy ways to prevent and control the flea population around your ... Read


Copyright © 2005-2011 eArticlesOnline, LLC - All Rights Reserved
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy