A three-year-old girl almost died after her family's cat gave her a rare form of meningitis. Sparkle Anderson was left just hours from death after she contracted meningitis from Chesney, her mother's two-year-old pet. Thankfully, after a month in hospital, Sparkle made a full recovery and she is now inseparable from the animal. Sparkle Anderson, three, caught meningitis from her mother's pet cat, Chesney (pictured) Sparkle's mother Chelsea-Ann Dodd, 21, a promotions assistant from Winsham, Somerset, said: ‘It seemed such an unlikely cause. ‘The doctors said she was only the 39th person in the world known to have picked up that particular strain of meningitis.
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Sparkle Anderson, now three, fell ill when she was just three weeks old
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Was diagnosed with meningitis and medics said she was hours from death
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Her illness has been traced to the family's pet cat, Chesney
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It is thought the cat licked Sparkle's bottle and she became ill because of bacteria in the cat's saliva
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But it is extremely rare for the bacteria to cause meningitis
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Last month a 19-year-old revealed she had caught TB from her kitten
Chesney
Chesney
Chesney
‘@placeholder still lives with my mum and there's no need to worry about them being in contact any more.
Chesney
Chesney
Chesney
As doctors brought Sparkle out of the danger zone, they made the startling revelation that they had traced the source of her meningitis to @placeholder the cat.
Chesney
Chesney
Chesney
Dodd said: ‘They thought that it was transferred through @placeholder's