Catscratch Fever

This art from the delightful has never been posted to her gallery that I can see, so I can't give a link to favorite the originals. But please drop her a nice line anyhow if you can! The paper texture is from here and the cat silhouette is from here.

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The International Morphological Foundation Presents: KNOW YOUR METAMORPHIC DISORDERS

Entry #PH3LIN3
Name: Metamorphic lymphoreticulosis
Common Name: Catscratch Fever
Frequency: Uncommon
Severity Class: 2

Notes:
Medical professionals have known for years that cats (especially kittens) are natural reservoirs of the gram-negative bacteria Bartonella henselae and Bartonella quintana, and that bites or scratches from those same cats can cause innoculation lymphoreticulosis, especially in children and young adults. However, it has only been since the pioneering work of Dr. Calvin K. Chervena, Sr. in 1966 that the IMF realized that those same bacteria could become contaminated with feline DNA and act as a vector to deliver it into a human system. The infection mechanism is very different than virus-based morphological disorders, which frustrated early attempts at diagnosis or treatment.

Case Study:
18-year-old Leaf Custis, an aspiring professional dancer and senior at the Oceanside City Academy of Fine Arts, was bitten and clawed by a feral cat during a trap-neuter-release drive at the behest of Oceanside Feline Fantatics. She noted brief flu-like symptoms but brushed them off; the next day, while rehearsing in a studio for a performance of Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake she suffered an acute metamorphic incident that was captured be rehearsal cameras. The OCAFA, under a long-standing agreement with the IMF, released selected images to the public as part of a public information and awareness program. Ms. Custis was the first US case of Metamorphic lymphoreticulosis to be diagnosed and treated; she was declared 99% cured, with only some slight residual ear pointing and tailsplosion, which she was able to parlay into a long association with the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical Cats.

Addendum from Agent Ellis, corresponding IMF agent:
Since Metamorphic lymphoreticulosis can be treated with antibiotics, it is relatively simple to cure albeit with an intense and strict treatment regimen with drugs not available over the counter. Some alarmists have claimed that overreliance on antibiotics will, in time, produce a drug-resistant strain of Metamorphic lymphoreticulosis that is incurable. I counter that the disorder is rare enough in proportion to the silly children that get themselves mauled by cats that it will be 1000 years before such a strain emerges. Perhaps then a plague will sweep the world and infect everyone with incurable metamorphosis, but I'm not betting the long odds on that one.