Flegr, Jaroslav

Jaroslav Flegr, PhD
Professor of Ecology and Associate Professor of Parasitology
National Institute of Mental Health
Klecany, Czechia
Faculty of Science, Charles University
Prague, Czechia

The Effect of Pet-Transmitted Diseases on the Mental and Physical Health of the General Population

Jaroslav Flegr is an evolutionary biologist and evolutionary psychologist affiliated to Fac. of Science
Charles University and National Institute of Public Health, Czechia. He is a discoverer of effects of latent
toxoplasmosis and Rh factor on human behavior and mental and physical health, as well as an author of
theories of frozen plasticity and frozen evolution. He has published four books and about 150 research
articles.

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Conference Lecture Summary

Cross-sectional studies showed that being injured by a cat correlates with symptoms of impaired mental
health, such as depressiveness, the probability of being diagnosed with major depression, and also with
the occurrence of many physical health problems. Cat scratch disease, the infection with the
bacterium Bartonella henselae, was suggested to be responsible for these associations. We have
recently found that the situation can be more complicated and that other pathogens transmitted from cats
can be responsible for the associations