Answer: Well, your neighbor is quite right to advise vaccination because this is very serious cat disease common in all countries. The virus is highly contagious and cats usually develop signs within a week to ten days of becoming infected. Infection occurs either by direct (i.e. with already infected cats) or indirect contact (meaning contact with objects infected within the virus). Some recovered cats can act as carriers and continue to excrete the virus of the some while afterwards. Fleas can also transmit the disease from one cat to another. The virus on of a group (parvoviruses) that are very resistant to destruction; they will withstand most disinfectants, except aldehydes and the hypochlorite bleaches, and can survive in the surrounding for more then a year. The virus is, however, killed by boiling.
Sometimes the virus causes sudden death, leading to the suspicion that the cat has been poisoned. This occurs primarily in young cats, who are always more seriously affected by infectious diseases. In general, however, it causes an acute disease attacking the rapidly multiplying cells of the intestine and the bone marrow. This accounts for its two common names of feline infectious enteritis (FIE), enteritis meaning inflammation of the intestine, and feline panleukopenia (FPL), panleukopenia being a generalize reduction in the number of white blood cell which are produced by the bone marrow. The later name is more commonly used in North America.
