Friday, November 23, 2012

Vietnam - HCM City: Sewer-rats carrying the virus that causes kidney failure


VietNamNet Bridge – Of 25 mice tested by the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, three are positive for virus Hata that causes acute renal failure. All of them are sewer-rats.

The Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute’s representative said the institute made the test after a patient who was bitten by a rat had continuous high fever and signs of kidney failure.

Scientists randomly caught 25 rats, including sewer-rats and house-rats in the area around the patient’s home, for testing in order to find pathogens that can harm human. Three rats were detected to carry the Hanta virus.

On October 17, a 55-year-old man from Ward 9, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, was brought to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in a state of prolonged high fever. The next day the patient patients showed signs of kidney failure. Tests showed that he carried the Hanta virus from mice. The patient said that he had previously been bitten to the leg by a rat during sleep.

Dr Tran Phu Manh Sieu, director of the HCMC Preventive Health Center, said Hanta virus transmits through the mouse bites or the contact with mouse urine. The HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases occasionally received patients infected with this virus and all of them were exposed to rats.

According to the doctors, the disease may go away after 7-10 days. However, it is dangerous that there is no preventive vaccine for this disease. Fortunately, not everyone is bitten by rats and not any sewer-rat carries this virus.

M. Lan

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