To mark the start of the Year of the Rat, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital doctors discussed diseases that could be directly or indirectly carried or spread by rodents.
Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics showed that rat-borne diseases that could cause up to 60 percent fatality rates if left untreated have not been seen in Taiwan since 1953, but last year there were still many cases of illnesses whose origins stemmed from viruses carried by rodents.
There were two cases each of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), 110 cases of leptospirosis, 29 cases of endemic typhus fever and 429 cases of scrub typhus.
Internal medicine department deputy director Huang Ching-tai (黃景泰) said that humans could catch the orthohantavirus, or hantavirus, through contact with rodent urine, saliva or feces.
Symptoms include acute renal failure or respiratory failure, and the virus could be fatal, he said.
Humans can be infected with leptospirosis if they ingest or come into contact with water or food grown in soil contaminated with rodent urine, Huang said.
Initial symptoms would be similar to a cold, while more severe symptoms could cause renal failure or bleeding, Huang said.
Timely treatment would cure the patient and there are rapid diagnostic solutions available that can help doctors make a diagnosis, he said.
Endemic typhus fever, which is caused by the Rickettsia bacteria, could cause headaches, fever and rashes in humans, Huang said, adding that most patients contracting endemic typhus fever recover without the need for medical assistance.
The pathogen for scrub typhus, Orientia tsutsugamushi, is carried by rodents and contact with a carrier could lead to tissue death, fever and lymphadenitis, Huang said.
Timely treatment with antibiotics lowers the fatality rate for scrub typhus to below 5 percent, he said.
“People should remove high grass or woodpiles from around their homes, as they could provide potential nest sites for rodents,” Taoyuan Department of Public Health official Yeh Chieh-ying (葉潔瑩).
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