response 1 of 25:

Nov 4 18:52 UTC 2003

Errmmm... did this come from a tabloid, perchance?

response 3 of 25:

Nov 4 20:06 UTC 2003

I thought that it was supposed to cause schitzophrenia (I DID read that in
a reputable place recently... will have to google and see if I can refind it).

response 5 of 25:

Nov 4 20:13 UTC 2003

The link is http://cogweb.ucla.edu/ep/Schizovirus.html

Copying part of the article:
Do Cats Cause Schizophrenia?
by Stephen Mihm
The New York Times Magazine on the Web

"I THINK CATS ARE GREAT," says E. Fuller Torrey. His office decor would seem
to confirm this statement: A cat poster hangs on one wall; a cat calendar sits
on his desk; and a framed picture of a friend's cat leans against the
windowsill. He even admits to having a "cat library" at home. But Torrey's
interest in felines is a bit different from that of your typical cat lover.
That's because Torrey, a psychiatry professor at the Uniformed Services
University of Health Science and the enfant terrible of mental health
research, believes that Felis domestica may carry infectious diseases that
could cause schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. "My wife thinks I'm going to
be assassinated by cat owners," says Torrey with a sigh. "In fact, I like
cats. Unfortunately, if we are correct that they transmit infections..." Here
his voice trails off, and he pensively fingers his closely cropped beard.

Torrey often speaks in a self-deprecating manner of his "delusional" notions,
but he's dead serious about the cat connection. He thinks "typhoid tabbies"
are passing along Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that causes brain lesions and,
if Torrey is right, schizophrenia. Torrey first made the argument nearly
thirty years ago. "It was considered psychotic," he admits. But since then,
his ideas, though still outside the mainstream, have attracted converts, most
notably the Johns Hopkins virologist Robert Yolken, with whom he now
collaborates. Together, they're trying to prove that toxoplasmosis is but one
of several infectious diseases that cause most cases of schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder. It helps their case that previous explanations -- bad
mothering, bad genes -- have proven deficient to varying degrees. But Torrey
and Yolken have also uncovered some hard evidence to support their claims,
and they are about to put their theory to the test with clinical trials of
drugs that are new to the psychopharmacological arsenal: antibiotics and
antivirals similar to those used by AIDS patients. If the duo finds that such
drugs alter the course of schizophrenia, Yolken observes, their results "would
represent a major advance in the treatment of this devastating disease as well
as in understanding its basic etiology." 

There is quite a bit more to the article, and there are several others about
the link between toxoplasma gondii and schitzophrenia. 

response 7 of 25:

Nov 5 01:35 UTC 2003

The article is on 
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102093,00.html
It actually says that this toxoplasma causes these personality changes.
Weird.

response 9 of 25:

Nov 5 17:48 UTC 2003

Kitties get toxoplasmosis from eating infected mice.

response 11 of 25:

Nov 5 18:25 UTC 2003

Some of us have mice in our houses!

I took my cat Tangelo to the vet last Friday because he was walking around
and stumbling and falling over, as if he was drunk. The first thought my
vet had was toxoplasmosis, which I guess is pretty serious. She's treating
him for and ear infection first, to rule that out. But she asked me if I
ever have mice int he house or if Tangelo goes outdoors. Yes, I hear mice
sometimes, and no, he doesn't go out doors.

response 13 of 25:

Nov 5 19:36 UTC 2003

they can also get it from feasting on dead aids patients.

response 15 of 25:

Nov 5 20:32 UTC 2003

Agreed with Mickey, ick. 

response 17 of 25:

Nov 6 04:43 UTC 2003

I wish I had schitzophrenia.

response 19 of 25:

Nov 6 18:50 UTC 2003

Thanks for the URL Micket :)

response 21 of 25:

Nov 12 13:17 UTC 2003

It's the same way in the US, for the most part.
EOF

response 23 of 25:

Nov 12 20:18 UTC 2003

twenex, the Guardian is on smaller paper than some of the British tabloids,
but it's certainly not a tabloid.
EOF