2020 really isn’t going to let us catch a break, sigh.
You’d think with the coronavirus outbreak, we probably wouldn’t be too concerned with any other random diseases, but nope.
Health officials have sent out a warning not to touch wild birds after three people tested positive in the Blue Mountains region for parrot fever, or psittacosis – and yeah, I’d never heard of parrot fever before either.
The seriousness of parrot fever varies pretty wildly – some people only experience regular cold-like symptoms, where other people can end up in hospital with severe pneumonia and be out of commission for weeks. It’s treatable with antibiotics, so don’t worry, this def isn’t going to be a coronavirus 2.0.
The health warning is targeted towards people in Blue Moutains and Lithgow, NSW – so it’s a pretty small circle so far.
You can get parrot fever by handling wild birds, kissing ya chooks (yes, even pet birds can give it to you) and being exposed to bird droppings, but it’s easy to avoid – just wear a face mask and gloves if you’re gardening outside or cleaning bird poop, and stop kissing your pet birds (big sad).
More interesting to me is the fact that people are really out here handling wild birds in the first place? Like, how do I get to live this Disney princess life?! (Sans parrot fever though, obviously.) My local birdies are def not interested in coming anywhere near me – though I guess maybe for now that’s a good thing.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons Andrew Mercer
