Cat and rabies



street cats



hagia sophia

I went to Istanbul last year with my college friends. I love Istanbul because you can find cats everywhere. Some cats are sitting calmly near the seashore aside fishermen. They wait for some fish. There are also a lot of cats sunbathing on the streets. They survive with food that local people give them. The funniest place to find cats is in Hagia Sophia, a Christian church in nowadays Muslim country. Many cats wander around greeting with people. I saw a cat sit in front of no entry stairs seems like working as a door cat. Cats are also crowded among travelers at all attracting places and I wonder whether they are fed by those travelers. You cannot see these cat community like these in Other European and North American cities





 Although, I love to see many cats surrounding me, it is a bit problem in term of public health. These cats are carriers of a fatal viral disease: rabies. Turkey is one of the countries with high prevalence of rabies and it is a result of uncontrollable increase of street animals including dogs and cats. The same situation happens in other Asian countries like India and Thailand. Domestic animals are not the source of rabies in other well-developed countries. Most of the cases in these countries are imported cases. If you travelled to any one of rabies endemic countries, you should not play or tease stray cats and dogs. And if you are unlucky enough to be bitten by these animals, you should contact local doctors to consider about receiving vaccination and serum prophylaxis as soon as possible.























Door cat



seashore cat