DEAR JOAN: Squirrels in Great Britain have been found to be a reservoir of leprosy. Could that happen here? Mark Thorson, Bay Area DEAR MARK: It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, but it’s not something we need to worry about. The squirrels in Britain — most of them found in Scotland — are the endangered red squirrels, and there have been no reports of squirrel-to-human transmission. Scientists were aware of only two animals that carried and transmitted leprosy, so the discovery of the disease in squirrels was shocking. Another surprise is that...
↧