HEALTH EFFECT OF RATS IN OUR HOME!!!

The presence of rats in our homes and around us is a major
problem. Although there has been no massive outbreak of
widespread disease associated with their presence in our
environment, that threat is a clear reminder of how poorly we still
fare on the human index for good health and healthy living.
Rats and mice are found even in hospitals, hotels and some
airliners. They are very creative creatures with great destructive
power and can feed and live on almost anything. They are also
very useful in the laboratories as research tools, especially mice. It
can be safely said that much of what is known today about the
human body and how it interacts with drugs would not have been
known were it not for the presence of mice.
But that is where the good ends. These creatures have long been
associated with major disease outbreaks such as the Bubonic
plague in the Middle Ages and the Black Death .

Rats range in sizes; from the tiny mouse found in the home to the
grass-cutter that many find to be a delicacy, but it is actually a
giant rat. And while rats are generally described as being large in
comparison to mice, they belong to the same family of rodents.
They also range from the single mouse or rat, which causes a lot
of damage in the home, to the armies of bamboo rats which
descend on Indian villages and other rural areas every 50 years or
so, consuming and destroying everything in their path. Once they
are introduced into an environment in which they did not
previously exist, rats have a reputation for causing such damage
that they are held accountable for much environmental
degradation. It has been said that rats in New York City are
probably as many as its human inhabitants. This alone shows that
it is not a sole preoccupation of the Third World.
There are many diseases directly linked to rats. The Centres for
Disease Control in Atlanta, USA, has linked a dozen or so diseases
directly to rats. We shall be discussing these diseases in brief.
Most of the time, these diseases are caused by the scratching and
biting of these animals on the human skin. At other times, they are
caused by the contamination of the food or water we drink with the
urine and faeces of these animals. If they are thus allowed to live
with us in our homes and in close proximity, it means that these
diseases can affect us directly.
1) Rat bite fever: This is caused by the bite or scratch from an
infected rat. It can also be caused by contact with a dead rodent.
Bacteria present in the rat trigger this disease. Eating or drinking
food or water contaminated with the urine or faeces of a rat
provides another mode of infection. This infection can occur
anywhere in the world, but is more likely where there is no safe
drinking water. The infection can therefore be treated when it
occurs.
2) Salmonellosis : This is caused by eating food or drinking water
that is contaminated with rat faeces. It is also promoted by
bacteria. This problem is more likely to occur where people do not
keep to the basic laws of hygiene, cover unfinished food properly
or where they fail to ensure that their drinking water is safe enough
for drinking. As said before on this page, this is guaranteed by
boiling or filtering potable water or both. When an infection is
present, it can be treated.
3) Plague : This is caused by the bite from an infected flea which
would have contracted the bacteria from a rat. It then transmits
the bacteria to a human by biting. It is a deadly disease but it can
be treated. It is so serious that until 2007, it was still regarded as a
notifiable disease by the World Health Organisation. The other two
diseases similarly classified are yellow fever and cholera. Plague
causes septicaemia and can similarly affect the lungs if it is
present in inhaled air. The most recent incident of this happened in
India in 1994.
4) Leptospirosis: When you drink water or eat food contaminated
by infected rats, you are at risk of contracting the disease. When
there is contact of the mucous membranes, such as the one inside
the nose, the skin with water or contaminated soil with the urine of
infected rats, you are at risk of getting the disease. This illness is
also triggered by bacteria, which means the bacteria are present in
the infected rodents.
5) Lassa fever : This is a deadly disease caused by a virus present
in an infected rat. It was first described in the village of Lassa in
today’s Borno State. Since the first description of this disease in
1969, there have been several outbreaks in various parts of
Nigeria, notably in Benue and Edo states. Being a viral infection,
there is no specific treatment and the death rate is close to 90 per
cent. It is caused by breathing in dust that is contaminated with
the urine or stool of rats and mice, by direct contact with these
rodents or with their droppings, by being bitten by these rats and
by person-to-person contact with those who have the disease.
This disease is primarily seen in West Africa.
6) Tularaemia: This is a bacterial infection which occurs when a
person eats food or drinks water contaminated by rat urine or
stool. It can also be transmitted through bites from fleas,
mosquitoes, flies and ticks from the reservoir in rodents. It can
also be contracted through the consumption of undercooked
infected meat. It causes significant swelling of the lymph glands
found in the armpits, groin and around the neck and may also
cause throat infections. It is treatable with antibiotics and death
from it is rare in Europe or North America.
7) Others: These are the other diseases caused by rats but are of
less importance to us living in this part of the world because they
have not been detected here. This includes Hantavirus found
mainly in South America. It causes a respiratory disease. Another
one is South American Arenaviruses , which is found in South
America as the name implies. Then there is the Haemorrhagic
fever with renal syndrome found mainly in Western Europe, Asia,
the Korean Peninsula and the Balkans. The latter two infections
are associated with abnormal bleeding from the skin and the
internal organs that is so pervasive and severe that the kidneys
eventually fail. Omsk Haemorrhagic fever is similar to the ones
just described. It is caused by a virus and found mainly in Western
Siberia. The mode of infection is similar to the Omsk fever .
Lymphocytic Chorio-meningitis is another infection caused by rats
through a virus. It causes a mild illness resembling meningitis in
some ways but death from this seldom occurs.
In other to prevent problems occurring as a result of contact with
these clever, resourceful but unpleasant animals, do all in your
power to keep them out of your homes.