5 diseases caused by rats
In addition to being an annoyance for your home during the rainy season, rats and rodents can cause a number of health problems, the majority of which are fatal. The recent deaths in the US from hantavirus, which affects your organs, have sparked a conversation about a number of diseases that rats can cause.
In addition, a variety of bacterial and viral illnesses are spread by house rats and other rodents. Among them are:
Bubonic plague
The bubonic plague, also known as the "Black Plague," and its variations are among the most historically devastating rat-borne illnesses. When human beings are bitten by rat fleas, transfer takes place. Millions of people died from this plague in the Middle Ages, which is thought to have been caused by fleas carried on rats.
Rat infestations can be dangerous to human health because they can spread diseases including typhus, hantavirus, and bubonic plague.
Hantavirus
Humans are infected by a type of virus called hantavirus, which is spread by rodents. Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, or HFRS, is a form of kidney disease brought on by hantaviruses that are prevalent in Europe and Asia. Other hantaviruses attack the lungs and fill them with fluid, causing hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, or HPS.
Death results from around 38% of hantavirus infections. Early signs of this rat-borne illness include fatigue, fever, muscle soreness, diarrhea, nausea, and stomach pain.
Salmonella
Bacteria
Another illness that rats can carry is salmonellosis. It is an intestinal bacterial infection brought on by a species of bacteria known as Salmonella. This bacteria is present in the digestive tracts of certain rodents. Thus, there is a chance of contracting salmonella from any contact with rat excrement, particularly from eating tainted food.
Numerous flu-like symptoms, including chills, fever, cramping in the abdomen, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, can be brought on by the illness.
Hemorrhagic fever
Medical professionals describe viral hemorrhagic fever, or VHF, as a collection of viral infections that impact several organ systems, result in significant internal bleeding, and have the potential to be lethal. It is mostly transmitted by rats and rodents and is caused by five different families of viruses, including arenaviruses, filoviruses, bunyaviruses, flaviviruses, and paramyxoviruses.
In addition to bloody diarrhea, it also causes severely low blood pressure, seizures, coma, chest and stomach discomfort, fever, body aches, dizziness, exhaustion, headache, and rashes.
Rat-bite fever
The bacteria Streptobacillus moniliformis or Spirillum minus, which are present in rats' urine, saliva, and feces, cause rat-bite fever, or RBF, a serious illness. In addition, other potential causes include scrapes and rat bites. The type of bacterial infection determines the signs and symptoms of RBF. The following are signs of streptobacillary RBF: rash close to the rat bite, lower abdominal joint and muscle pain, nausea, and sudden fever.
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