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Across Maldonado and Rocha, departments on Uruguay\u2019s southeastern coast, an Institute of Hygiene notice documented the fungus in cats, other pets, and people.<\/p>\n
From that evidence, Elisa Cabeza at the Universidad de la Republica (Udelar<\/a>) tied those cases to Sporothrix brasiliensis.<\/p>\n Cabeza\u2019s team found sick cats in both departments with no tie to that first adopted kitten, hinting that the fungus was moving locally.<\/p>\n That changed the threat from a single household problem into a harder question about why cats spread this fungal species so efficiently.<\/p>\n Why cats amplify Sporothrix brasiliensis<\/p>\n Open sores on infected cats carry large amounts of the fungus, especially around the nose, face, mouth, and paws.<\/p>\n When claws, teeth, or wound fluid break human skin, the fungus lands directly in tissue and starts growing.<\/p>\n A recent review<\/a> noted that cats can transfer large numbers of yeast-like cells during scratches, bites, and contact with exudates.<\/p>\n Because street cats get infected, fight, and roam widely, they can keep passing the fungus between neighborhoods before anyone notices.<\/p>\n A body-heat switch<\/p>\n Outside a body, the fungus grows as branching threads, but body heat pushes it into a compact yeast form.<\/p>\n That physical change matters because the smaller form settles into damaged skin<\/a> more easily and multiplies inside living tissue.<\/p>\n Researchers call this dimorphism, a temperature-driven switch between two body plans, and it helps the species survive indoors and outdoors.<\/p>\n Such flexibility is one reason the organism can persist in the environment, then keep infecting mammals once it finds them.<\/p>\n Sporothrix brasiliensis symptoms<\/p>\n In people, sporotrichosis \u2013 a skin infection that often follows a scratch \u2013 usually starts as a red bump that breaks open.<\/p>\n Soon, more bumps can appear in a line as the fungus<\/a> moves through nearby drainage channels under the skin.<\/p>\n Cats often show stubborn wounds, crusts and hair loss, especially on the face and head. They may also sometimes present with red, draining eyes.<\/p>\n Rarely, the illness spreads beyond skin and drainage channels, which is why early lesions matter more than their appearance may suggest.<\/p>\n How doctors confirm the cat fungus<\/p>\n Doctors usually confirm the infection<\/a> by examining material from a sore under the microscope or growing the fungus in culture.<\/p>\n That matters because the sores often get mistaken for bacterial infections, leaving patients on antibiotics that do nothing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe infection is curable,\u201d said Dr. Cabeza. Common antifungal drugs can work, but treatment often lasts weeks or months, and cats are much harder to manage.<\/p>\n Who faces trouble<\/p>\n Young children, older adults, and people with weakened immunity face the highest odds of severe disease once the fungus gets in.<\/p>\n An official report says rare cases<\/a> can reach joints, lungs, or the brain\u2019s lining and become much harder to treat.<\/p>\n Udelar investigators also warned that this species can hit children under two and older adults especially hard.<\/p>\n That makes a missed scratch or a delayed diagnosis more serious than the small first lesion suggests.<\/p>\n Following the cat fungus trail<\/p>\n Across the border in Argentina, a 2024 report<\/a> linked two human cases to a shared source after contact with sick cats.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has resulted in a large and progressive outbreak spreading within Brazil and several adjacent countries in South America,\u201d the World Health Organization stated.<\/p>\n That fact sheet says affected areas in South America have reported more than 11,000 human cases during the past decade.<\/p>\n Regional movement of cats, legal or informal, now matters because one sick animal can carry a successful strain of fungus across borders.<\/p>\n Uruguay\u2019s old pattern<\/p>\n Before this alert, Uruguay mostly saw sporotrichosis after contact with soil, plants, or armadillos rather than cats.<\/p>\n A Udelar review<\/a> found 157 diagnosed cases across 38 years, with 128 linked to armadillo scratches during hunting.<\/p>\n That older pattern helps explain why the new, cat-borne route drew such concern from clinicians and veterinarians.<\/p>\n It means the country is not just seeing more of the same disease, but a different way of spreading it.<\/p>\n Control gets harder<\/p>\n Street cats make control difficult because many never get diagnosed, treated, or kept indoors while their wounds are still active.<\/p>\n A study<\/a> detected the fungus in droplets expelled when infected cats sneezed, widening concern beyond scratches and bites.<\/p>\n Public health teams therefore need animal care, medical care, and neighborhood reporting to work in lockstep.<\/p>\n Without that combined response, each untreated animal can keep the outbreak alive long after the first human case heals.<\/p>\n What this changes<\/p>\n Uruguay\u2019s detection shows that a fungus once tied mostly to Brazilian cat outbreaks now has firmer footholds across southern South America.<\/p>\n Fast diagnosis, treatment for pets and people, and better control of stray cats will decide whether these warnings stay local or spread further.<\/p>\n The study is published in Medical Mycology Case Reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers have documented the arrival of Sporothrix brasiliensis, a fungus that causes skin infections. It was identified in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-494754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}