A 76-year-old Canadian man was admitted to hospital because of a serious infection developed after being bitten by a rat found in his toilet.
- A 76-year-old man had his fingers bitten by a rat while he tried to take it out of the toilet where he was.
- More than two weeks after the bite, the Canadian was hospitalized due to a serious infection. Several of his organs were beginning to fail.
- Tests revealed he had contracted leptospirosis.
While he wanted to go to the toilet, a 76-year-old Canadian noticed the presence of a rat in the bowl. He was bitten on the fingers by the rodent while he tried to get it out. This mishap led the man to have significant health problems. Indeed, two weeks later, he was hospitalized due to multiple organ failure due to a bacterial infection.
Rat bite: hospitalized in intensive care 18 days later
After the rat bite, the 70-year-old went to the emergency room where he received basic wound care and a booster dose of tetanus vaccine. Despite these rapid treatments, the patient was hospitalized in Montreal 18 days later because he had had a fever, headache and abdominal pain for three days.
Tests also revealed that he had a high heart rate, low blood pressure and damaged kidneys. Additionally, the patient showed signs of multiple organ dysfunction and sepsis. He was then admitted to intensive care.
Although the patient’s wound had mostly healed, doctors quickly suspected that the rat’s bite might be the cause of the infection. Blood and urine tests were taken and then sent for analysis. They revealed that the 76-year-old had contracted leptospirosis, a disease of which rats are one of the main vectors.
The bacteria responsible for the infection, called Leptospira interrogans, is present in the urine of rodents. “Because rats do not excrete leptospires in their saliva, temporary contamination of their oral cavity with urine has been suggested as an explanation for transmission through bites.”write the authors who report this case in the journal Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The patient was treated with antibiotics and steroids. He was released from the intensive care unit after three days. After his hospitalization, he continued to take antibiotic treatment for 15 days and he is doing better.
Leptospirosis: up to 14 days of incubation
According to the Pasteur Institute, there are more than 1 million severe cases of leptospirosis per year worldwide. The incubation period for this infection, transmitted by rodents, is on average 4 to 14 days.
“In the moderate form, the disease begins with a high fever with chills, headaches, muscle pain and diffuse joint pain. However, it can progress to kidney, liver, meningeal or pulmonary damage. In 20% of cases, it occurs. complicated by a hemorrhagic syndrome, explains the organization on its website. The pathology has a mortality rate greater than 10%.
The incidence of leptospirosis is 50 to 100 times higher in tropical regions, such as the overseas departments. Moreover, Reunion Island is currently facing an increase in cases compared to previous years.
