Dr. Cliff Redford

It is all throughout South America.

It is a new... A new fungus?

A brand new fungus?

It is generally a brand new fungus.

First seen 10 years ago.

And it infects cats and other animals.

and people, but in cats, it shows up as these nasty pustules and open sore lesions around their mouth, their nostrils, their face generally, their claws, like their paw pads.

And what they did not realize, because when they first found it 10 years ago, 10 plus years ago, was it was just in this one section, the southeast coast of Uruguay.

And there were the occasional person that would pick up these lesions as well.

But in the last 10 years, all throughout South America, 10,000 people have been diagnosed with it now.

Okay, good.

Apparently, it's very, very easy to treat.

But what sort of makes this pique the interest of scientists is they quickly realized that cats and people that were being diagnosed with it had no connection with another cat or a person that had it.

So they were confused at how it could spread.

Can I guess?

Can I guess?

It can, but that's not what's happening with this one.

I tried.

This one is basically they realized that it was so easily spread that when a cat had it, even if they didn't have a lot of lesions...

If they bit or scratched or rubbed their face up against another animal or person, let's say, then this fungus would spread.