Are you a Health Professional? Jump over to the doctors only platform. Click Here

Warning: Kissing rats is a health hazard

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

A 26-year-old Adelaide woman contracted a potentially fatal illness after close contact with her pet rats, and the disease could become more common as rodent ownership rises, according to a case report published in the the February 20 issue of the Medical Journal of Australia.

According to the report by Dr Lito Papanicolas, a registrar at SA Pathology, and coauthors, the patient was found to have contracted a Streptobacillus moniliformis infection – rat bite fever.

As the name suggests, the disease is usually acquired through a rat bite, but can result from handling and exposure to the excreta or saliva of pet rodents like rats or guinea pigs. In this case, the woman had not been bitten by her two pets, but she liked to kiss and cuddle them.

The woman presented to the emergency department with a severe headache and then went on to develop respiratory distress. She was treated in the intensive care unit and spent 17 days in hospital. She did, however, make a full recovery.

Pet shop employees and lab workers have been among the victims in recent years and, increasingly, so have the owners of pet rats, according to the authors.

“As rodents become more popular as household pets, more cases of S. moniliformis infection due to affectionate contact are likely to occur”, the authors wrote.

They also said the case highlights the importance of history-taking and the need to perform blood cultures in patients presenting with fever.


(Source: Australian Medical Association: Medical Journal of Australia)


Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Dates

Posted On: 24 February, 2012
Modified On: 15 January, 2014


Created by: myVMC