Think twice before you nuzzle your precious,????? ?????? fuzzy feline companion. Your health may depend on it.

Cat lovers of the internet like to joke about how their favorite pets may harbor ill will towards them -- posting memes and sinister photos about how kitties may be plotting their untimely demises.

Perhaps there's more truth to this idea than we thought.

According to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and appearing in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, cuddling kittens increases the risk of cat-scratch disease, a preventable, mild illness that can become fatal if contracted with serious complications.

The disease spreads when a cat licks a person's open wound, bites or scratches a person hard enough to break the skin. We all know how finicky cats can be during cuddle sessions -- they can turn ugly at a moment's notice.

Symptoms involve fever, headache, poor appetite, swollen lymph nodes and exhaustion. If left unchecked, it can also cause brain swelling, heart complications and death.

The study observed health insurance claims made between 2005 and 2013 and found that in over 12,000 claims diagnosed with cat-scratch disease, 500 of them were hospitalized. Despite fewer people contracting the disease over all, the number of people who have become seriously ill from the disease has "increased from 3.5% in 2005–2007 to 4.2% in 2011–2013" according to the study.

The study also found that there was an unusually high rate of diagnoses of the disease in January.

"One hypothesis to explain the January peak is that cats are adopted from shelters more often during the holiday season, for sentimental reasons or as gifts," it says it in the study. The authors also theorize that students coming home for holidays or increasing their time inside might also be a factor.

However, if you're a healthy individual, you might need to steer clear of your cat all together.

"Most of the people who get seriously sick from cat-scratch are immunocompromised. The classic example is patients with HIV," Dr. Aaron Glatt, chairman of medicine and hospital epidemiology of South Nassau Community Hospital in New York told NPR.

Glatt was not involved in the study, but also mentioned to NPR that more people have suppressed immune systems today, which might attribute to the rise in serious cases.

"Cat-scratch is preventable. If we can identify the populations at risk and the patterns of disease, we can focus the prevention efforts," he said.

If you want to keep yourself safe, make sure you have good flea control, keep your cats indoors, and always wash your hands after your cuddle sessions, says the CDC.

And don't squeeze them too hard.

BONUS: 100 Years of Kitten Beauty

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