Teen Gets Rare Disease From Pet Rat Bite
A 17 year old from Charlottesville, Virginia has come down with an incredibly rare disease (rat-bite fever) thanks to her pet rat.
Since 1839, there have only been 200 known (has been around for 2,300 years), reported cases of rat-bite fever in the U.S according to Dr. Carina Brown from the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Her symptoms included hip and lower back pain, fever, nausea, vomiting and a strange pink rash on her hands and feet. The bacteria, Streptobacilus moniliformis is responsible for the illness.
It took 4 weeks of antibiotics for the teen to make a full recovery. The rat lover kept her rats, however she now wears gloves when handling the pet rodents. If rat-bit ever goes untreated, it is considered to be fatal in 13% of patients.
Have you ever been bitten by a rat?
