Infections with potentially fatal rat urine hit all-time highs in NYC
There were three cases annually on average between 2001 and
2020. There were 24 last year.
A record number of people in New York City became ill last year from a potentially fatal bacterial infection that is usually carried by rat urine, and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reports that this year is on track to set a new record.
Leptospirosis is the infection, and it can cause a variety of symptoms, including general ones like fever, chills, headache, and muscular aches, as well as vomiting, diarrhoea, and cough. However, if untreated, can worsen and result in renal failure, liver damage, jaundice, bleeding, conjunctival suffusion (bloody eyes), breathing difficulties, and possibly even death.
Rats are infected by the bacteria that causes it, spirochete bacteria of the genus Leptospira, which are excreted in their urine. Direct contact between the germs and open wounds or mucosal membranes allows them to spread to humans.
The rat population of New York City, believed to number up to 3 million last year, has long been the target of a (mainly losing) war. The municipal council just put forth the newest plan to reduce the number of rat colonies: birth control in the form of salty pellets. Mayor Eric Adams has made controlling the rat population a top priority.
However, until recently, leptospirosis was not a major worry resulting from the rats' mischievous behaviour. There were only three leptospirosis infections reported in the city annually on average between 2001 and 2020, and some of those cases were linked to travel. However, during the pandemic, things seemed to change as the rat population appeared to increase. By 2022 and 2021, the average had increased to 15. Twenty-four cases were reported in 2023, the most cases ever for a single year in history. Furthermore, there have been six cases as of April 10.
Considering that Leptospira germs are "fragile," as the NYC health department describes them, the number of instances this year to date is troubling. In the icy winter months and the scorching summer heat, they wither away rapidly. Their primary growth period is in warm, humid environments. June and October of last year were the months with the highest number of cases. The health authorities stated that the increase in cases might be partially attributed to climate change, which is bringing on torrential rain and unusually warm temperatures.
The city's health department issued a health advisory last week advising physicians to be alert for instances, which are treated with standard oral antibiotics when moderate or intravenous doses when severe. Although they can appear anywhere from two to thirty days after exposure, symptoms usually appear five to fourteen days later.
Ninety-four percent of the 98 locally acquired cases that the city recorded between 2001 and 2023 were in men, and the median age ranged from 20 to 80 years. The Bronx accounted for 37 of the instances, with Manhattan (28), Brooklyn (19), Queens (10), and Staten Island (4) following. Acute liver and kidney failure, as well as occasionally severe pulmonary involvement, were the cases that were brought before doctors. Six cases—or 98 cases—were fatal.
Rat urine-contaminated soil and water, rat-urine-contaminated objects (such garbage bags and food waste bins), and living or working situations are the usual causes of these occurrences. It is uncommon for human-to-human transmission, according to the health authority.
Not just New York is experiencing an epidemic of leptospirosis cases.
Physicians in the Netherlands reported a case last year involving an
18-year-old who had fallen into a canal that was probably tainted with rat
urine, resulting in leptospirosis and jaundiced, bloodshot eyes.