New Yorkers Contracting Deadly Disease From Rats- Leptospirosis

Leptospirosis Outbreak In NYC Spread By Rat Urine, 13 Hospitalized, One Dead - Rats. New York City (NYC) has had more cases of leptospirosis in 2021 than in any other prior year. And 2020 still has a little over two months to go.

That’s according to a recent NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene advisory. So far this year, the Big Apple has already had 14 reported cases of people infected with the spirochete bacteria Leptospira interrogans. And leptospirosis isn’t the “it’s just leptospirosis, I should be able to make our date” type of infectious disease. Of the 14 cases, 13 have landed in the hospital with liver and kidney failure, two had severe lung disease, and one ended up dying.

What’s probably the most common way of getting infected with Leptospira interrogans in NYC? Well, urine for a surprise. It’s rat urine.

Yep, who would have known that rat urine could be a bad thing? When rats are infected with the bacteria, they can excrete the microbes through urine. That can leave soil, water, food, or anything else around them contaminated with Leptospira interrogans. After all, news flash, rats don’t tend to pee in little rat toilets. Instead, they pee wherever they feel like doing so. Apparently, rats like their freedom and don’t listen to mandates to use toilets or wear clothes for that matter.

When anything contaminated with such infectious rat urine comes into contact with your mucous membranes or open wounds, the bacteria can enter your body. Eating or drinking anything contaminated can introduce the Leptospira interrogans into your body too. This is yet another reason why you shouldn’t drink rat urine or eat soil. The good news is that human-to-human transmission of the bacteria has been quite rare. So it is OK to hang around your friend after he or she has eaten soil at least from a leptospirosis standpoint.

Once you are infected, it typically takes two days to four weeks for symptoms to emerge, if you do end up having symptoms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that leptospirosis can result in a wide range of symptoms, many of which can be mistaken for other diseases. Such symptoms include high fever, headache, chills, muscle aches, vomiting, jaundice (yellow skin and eyes), red eyes, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and rash. As you can imagine, the next time you have a headache, don’t automatically assume that it is leptospirosis, unless, of course, it developed about a week after downing that rat urine cocktail.

The illness may have two phases. The first phase may consist of symptoms like fever, chills, headaches, muscle aches, vomiting, or diarrhea. You may seemingly recover from this phase just to get sick again later. If you do end up having a second phase, this next phase tends to be much more severe. This is when liver or kidney failure or severe respiratory problems may occur. Another possible life-threatening consequence is meningitis, which is inflammation of the membranes surrounding your brain.