Rat Bite Consequence

[tribalsky]

A friend of mine was bitten by a rat in his home in Samui yesterday. The wound is on finger around 2 mm deep. He clean it with alcohol and betadine. Now he worried - is this enough after rat bite or he need to go to hospital for any vaccination? Rat not attacked him, it was in glue trap and still alive when he try remove rat from trap.

[Disander]

Yes, I would go to the hospital.

[MJCM]

Your friend has 2 Choices

1- Don't go to Hospital and wait till it swells up because of an infection and then go to Hospital

2- Go to the Hospital and get it checked out before it gets infected.

Rats carry a lot of diseases with them !

Do the right thing and take Option 2

Edited April 10, 2012 by MJCM

[tropo]

Your friend has 2 Choices

1- Don't go to Hospital and wait till it swells up because of an infection and then go to Hospital

2- Go to the Hospital and get it checked out before it gets infected.

Rats carry a lot of diseases with them !

Do the right thing and take Option 2

There is a third possibility. The OP doesn't get an infection because he has a strong immune system.

[chiang mai]

Here's what he could catch:

Helminths (worms):

the oxyuroid pinworm Syphacia muris in 67% of the rats

the strongoloyd parasite Nippostronglyus brasiliensis found in 23%

the liver worm Capillaria in 23%

the cestode Hymenolepsis diminuta in 22%

Toxocara cati causing Toxocariasis in 15%

the oxyuroid pinworm Heterakis spp. in 14%

the cestode Hymenolepsis nana in 11%

the intestinal tapeworm Taenia taeniaeformis in 11%

Bacteria

Leptospira spp. bacteria causing Weil's disease in 14%

Listeria spp. bacteria causing listeriosis in 11%

Yersinia enterocolitica bacteria causing yersiniosis in 11%

Pasturella spp. bacteria causing Pasturellosis in 6%

Pseudomonas spp. bacteria causing Meilioidosis in 4%

Protozoa

Cryptosporidium parvum causing cryptosporidiosis in 63% of the rats

Toxoplasma gondii causing toxoplasmosis in 35%

Trypanosoma lewisii in 29%

Eimeria separata in 8%

Rickettsia

Coxiella burnetti evidence of infection by Q fever in 34%

Viruses

Hantavirus causing Hantaan-fever or hemorrhagic fever in 5%

Ectoparasites (note: these ectoparasites are vectors for diseases which are transmissible to humans, such as typhus)

Fleas found on 100% of the rats

Mites found on 67%

Lice found on 38%In Norway rats examined in Chunchon, Korea, Seong et al. (1995) found the following helminths:

Capillaria hepatica in 25.6% of rats

Hymenolepis diminuta in 32.6%

Taenia taeniaeformis metacestode in 65.1%

Brachylaima mascomai was found and studied in wild rats living in the Llobregat delta in Spain (Gracena and Gonzalez-Moreno 2002).

Trichinosis (transmitted when humans eat undercooked meat from hogs that consumed food contaminated with feces from infected rats):

The spiralis causing trichinosis in humans and swine, Trichinella britovi, was found to be prevalent in Norway rats in Croatia (Marinculic et al. 2001)

42.4% of wild rats were found to be infected with trichenellosis on a pig farm (Leiby et al. 1990)

19% of rats from waste disposal sites in Finland carried Trichenella spp. (Mikkonen et al. 2005)

21.4% of wild rats from a hog farm in the Slovak Repuclib carried Trichenella spp. (Hurnikova et al. 2005)

Wild Norway rats were found to be a reservoir host of Cryptosporidium parvum, with an overall parasite occurence of 24%. The percentage of rats infected with the parasite varied according to age, sex and season (Quy et al. 1999).

Bacteria

Leptospira spp.

16% of wild Norway rats in and around Saint Petersburg, Russia carried Leptospirosis (Tokarevich et al. 2002)

45% of wild Norway rats on the Ripa Grande-San Michele port in Rome, Italy carried Leptospirosis (Pezella et al. 2004)

16.9% of brain tissue samples and 27.1% of kidney samples from 59 wild Norway rats collected along the Black Sea in Turkey tested positive for Leptospirosis (Sunbul et al. 2001).

Salmonella

low percentages have been reported in populations of Norway rats in the United States (Davis 1948, Davis 1951b, Nakashima et al. 1978)

8% of fecal samples from wild Norway rats from the West Midlands, UK, tested positive for salmonella (Hilton et al.2002).

Protozoa

Six Sarcocystis spp. were identified in the muscles of 33% of wild rodents (Rattus species and Bandicota indica) in central Thailand. One of the parasite species, Sarcocystis cymruensis, was prevalent in R. norvegicus (Jakel et al. 1997)

Viruses

Hepatitis E:

Kabrane-Lazizie et al. (1999) studied Hepatitis E in wild rats in the United States. They trapped 239 rats from three widely separated regions of the U.S., and the infection rates were very high: 77% of rats from Maryland, 90% of rats from Hawaii, and 44% of rats from Louisiana had been infected with Hepatitis E

31% of wild Norway rats (114 out of 362) in Japan tested positive for hepatitis E antibodies (Herano et al. 2003)

Hantavirus:

Norway rats found infected with hantavirus (Seoul virus) in Baltimore, Maryland (Hinson et al. 2004)

First reported case of a wild rat carrying Seoul hantavirus on a wild Norway rat in Europe (France) (Heyman et al. 2004)

31% of 29 Norway rats captured in Buenos Aires had antibodies to Seoul hantavirus (Seijo et al. 2003)

20.9% (39 out of 187) of Norway rats captured in Cambodia had antibodies to Seoul hantavirus (Reynes et al. 2003)

1.53% (7 individuals) of Norway rats captured in a fresh food market tested positive to Hantaan virus in Bangkok, Thailand (Kantakamalakul et al. 2003).

[MJCM]

Your friend has 2 Choices

1- Don't go to Hospital and wait till it swells up because of an infection and then go to Hospital

2- Go to the Hospital and get it checked out before it gets infected.

Rats carry a lot of diseases with them !

Do the right thing and take Option 2

There is a third possibility. The OP doesn't get an infection because he has a strong immune system.

And be stressed all the time, because of color changes in the wound, and wondering what is happening ? Could it be infected, Could it be this, could it be that. Just go to a hospital or a doctor and get it checked out.

[tropo]

And be stressed all the time, because of color changes in the wound, and wondering what is happening ? Could it be infected, Could it be this, could it be that. Just go to a hospital or a doctor and get it checked out.

Everyone is different. I would just keep it clean and forget about it - but I ride motorbikes in Pattaya.

[MJCM]

And be stressed all the time, because of color changes in the wound, and wondering what is happening ? Could it be infected, Could it be this, could it be that. Just go to a hospital or a doctor and get it checked out.

Everyone is different. I would just keep it clean and forget about it - but I ride motorbikes in Pattaya.

I would also when I have minor injuries, but a Rat bite or even a Dog Bite that broke the skin ?? No thanks, I would get it checked out.

Edited April 10, 2012 by MJCM

[tribalsky]

he went to hospital and got injection against rabies and tetanus.

[Sheryl]

Good. Rabies being the most urgent concern, as rats can be rabid.