On the same year the Disney movie was released, in 2009, there was an increasing number of girls hospitalized with salmonella disease (77% of the total infected, the girls ranging from 4 to 10 years old) all across the globe, the infection one of the possible diseases you could get from even touching a frog. And that made me question... Only one possible disease? What else could happen if you kiss a frog?
According to Jeremy Goodman, director of the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, you could get Salmonella typhimurium, usually known as Salmonella, an infection that can cause diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps, starting from 12 to 72 hours after infection. Or you could get Cysticercosis, that causes the apparition of painful and swollen solid lumps under the skin, or Neurocysticercosis, that affects the brain, and can cause neurological symptoms, or headaches and seizures. All of them can cause serious complications if not treated immediately, he says.
But that’s not all! Depending on the toxin secreted by the frog's skin, if you don’t fall ill, you could hallucinate (being this a great risk, as they also interfere directly with the nervous system, disrupting your ability to think, move and even interrupting your regular heartbeat), or even die.
Even if you touch them, serious repercussions can happen. Not only for you, but for the frog too: amphibians are very sensitive to new pathogens and chemicals, because their skin is very permeable. Devin Edmonds, the author of “Frogs and Toads”, says that human hands have natural salts and oils that can irritate a frog’s skin, and could lead to severe problems for them, even death. Imagine that you’re exposing it to bacteria and chemicals from your mouth (if you dare to kiss that frog) or hands, and the frog’s skin is absorbing all that...
So remember, do not kiss any frog. If you see a frog somewhere, admire it, take a picture and go. That’s it, if you don’t want anything bad happening to you and the frog...
Photograph by @Alexas_Fotos