In a study that's not for the squeamish, doctors have determined that a man who became very ill after being bitten by a rat in his toilet was infected by bacteria in rat urine that was in the rat's mouth. According to the study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the 76-year-old Montreal resident arrived at a hospital's emergency department with symptoms including fever, headache, and abdominal pain 18 days after the rat bite. The man, who had been suffering the symptoms for three days, was admitted to the ICU with "multiorgan dysfunction secondary to sepsis of unclear origin."
The man said he had been bitten on two fingers as he tried to remove the rat from the toilet bowl. He said he went to an emergency department after the bite, "where he received basic wound care and a booster dose of tetanus vaccination before being discharged," the study says. After he was admitted to the ICU, doctors determined that he was infected with leptospirosis, also known as Weil's disease, Live Science reports. The disease kills close to 60,000 people worldwide every year, though only 100 to 150 cases are reported in the US annually.
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The disease is found in the urine of rats and other infected animals but not in their saliva. "Temporary contamination of their oral cavity with urine has been suggested as an explanation for transmission through bites," doctors wrote. The Canadian man was treated with antibiotics and steroids and was released from the ICU after three days, the New York Post reports. In the study, doctors wrote that "rat bites represent 1% of the estimated 2 million animal bites annually, and children are often the victims." They said other studies gave conflicting figures on the infection risk and "further studies would be welcomed."
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This article originally appeared on Newser: He Was Bitten by a Toilet Rat. 18 Days Later, He Was in the ICU
