# Wash your mind with soap before leaving... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 23, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wash-your-mind-with-soap-before-leaving/291563 "2005-02-23T18:10:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wash-your-mind-with-soap-before-leaving/291563/1 "2005-02-23T18:10:40Z")
Okay, putting aside the desire to disbelieve that this actually goes on IRL… [Ewww!](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_195a.html) Is there any evidence that some pretty awful diseases can (or have) been transmitted between animals and the very very very sick people who love them too much? And again… ewwwwwwww…\ ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wash-your-mind-with-soap-before-leaving/291563/2 "2005-02-23T18:37:53Z")
Ringworm is zoonotic. I suppose the location of the lesion may fit with your question. Brucellosis is a disease spread from animal to animal via sexual contact. Human infections are rare, but do occur. [http://www.ivis.org/advances/Infect\_Dis\_Carmichael/shin/chapter\_frm.asp?LA=1](http://www.ivis.org/advances/Infect_Dis_Carmichael/shin/chapter_frm.asp?LA=1) ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wash-your-mind-with-soap-before-leaving/291563/3 "2005-02-24T13:57:32Z")
When working in a vet clinic, I once had the task of washing three kittens who had diarrhea and ringworm (the poor things. Adorable as hell but they weren’t very healthy.) I wore gloves, of course, but kittens have very sharp claws, and they seem to grow sharper when the cat is being bathed. I ended up getting ringworm just in time for a vacation to Portugal (and my broken Portuguese made getting treatment more difficult!) So I guess I got ringworm because I love kittens too much. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wash-your-mind-with-soap-before-leaving/291563/4 "2005-02-24T14:17:50Z")
There is some thought that HIV most likely came from SIV via the green monkey. No one knows how it jumped species exactly, but, seeing as how AIDS is sexually transmitted… ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wash-your-mind-with-soap-before-leaving/291563/5 "2005-02-24T15:11:42Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > There is some thought that HIV most likely came from SIV via the green monkey. No one knows how it jumped species exactly, but, seeing as how AIDS is sexually transmitted… To be pedantic, that’s **one** of the ways it can be transmitted. Specifically, it’s present in decent quantities in blood and semen, and activities like a blood-drawing fight with a monkey, eating rare monkey steaks, etc., might also be main ways that a mutating SIV virus might have jumped species.[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wash-your-mind-with-soap-before-leaving/291563/6 "2005-02-24T15:46:30Z")
> [@Ferret Herder](#): > > To be pedantic, that’s **one** of the ways it can be transmitted. Specifically, it’s present in decent quantities in blood and semen, and activities like a blood-drawing fight with a monkey, eating rare monkey steaks, etc., might also be main ways that a mutating SIV virus might have jumped species.[/hijack] So if monkeys had guns, AIDS might never have happened… ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wash-your-mind-with-soap-before-leaving/291563/7 "2005-02-24T15:49:51Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > There is some thought that HIV most likely came from SIV via the green monkey. No one knows how it jumped species exactly, but, seeing as how AIDS is sexually transmitted… The thought was that people were eating the raw meat( brains) of green monkeys. However, I believe that link was never proved ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wash-your-mind-with-soap-before-leaving/291563/8 "2005-02-24T15:59:46Z")
Koalas carry chlamydia… They are kinda cute, but… ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wash-your-mind-with-soap-before-leaving/291563/9 "2005-02-25T00:33:18Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > The thought was that people were eating the raw meat( brains) of green monkeys. However, I believe that link was never proved Which strain of HIV are we talking? HIV-1 and HIV-2 came from separate zoonosis events. I’ve read that the most plausible mode of transmission was probably from the bushmeat trade. HIV-1 came from chimps, though, not monkeys. And HIV-2 (a much rarer, somewhat less virulent form mostly confined to Africa) came from a monkey called the sooty mangabey. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wash-your-mind-with-soap-before-leaving/291563/10 "2005-02-25T14:02:20Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > Koalas carry chlamydia… They are kinda cute, but… Koalas have bifurcated reproductive organs. That is, the male Koala has a slingshot _sans_ rubber band, with the lady possessing compatable parts. So, anybody “getting it on” with one would have to…oh yeah, Australia _was_ colonized by convicts, wasn’t it? 😉😃😛