Drugs are available to kill this parasite in cats and people. Hookworms, a type of roundworm that lives in a cat's digestive tract, can infect human skin, causing lesions. People acquire hookworm larvae through contact with wet sand. For example, children, electricians, plumbers, and other workers who crawl beneath raised buildings, are more susceptible than the general public, as are sunbathers. The larvae can remain alive and travel in the skin for up to several months.
Drugs are available for cats and people.
Plague is an acute bacterial disease transmitted primarily by wild rodent fleas mainly in the Southwest and California. Cats can become infected from flea bites or from eating infected small mammals. The most frequent route of transmission to humans is via the bite of an infected flea. Alternatively, people can contract the illness by direct contact with the secretions of an infected animal or person, such as scratches, bites, or from inhalation of infective droplets released by coughing or sneezing. In recent years, almost all human cases of the most lethal form of the disease, pneumonic plague, have been linked to domestic cats.