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 New York City is investigating three recent cases — one of them fatal — of a rare disease transmitted through rat urine that have occurred in the Grand Concourse neighborhood of the Bronx, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection that is most commonly spread by contact with rat urine and is very rarely spread from person to person. This is the first time a cluster of the cases of the disease, leptospirosis, has been identified, according to an alert issued by the department on Tuesday. From 2006 to 2016, 26 cases were reported in the city; the Bronx had the highest number, eight. "Immediately when this first came to our attention on Monday, we dispatched a team here to take a look at the building and they identified a problem with rodent infestation and garbage management," said Bassett.44-year-old Braulio Balbuena Flores lived in the basement of the building and is one of the people who got the rat-borne disease, and survived.His brother said Flores spent two weeks in Lincoln Hospital.NEW YORK CITY HEALTH COMMISSIONER NEWS CONFERENCE:- Avoid contact with rats or with places where rats may have urinated.- Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water after any contact with areas where rats may live.- If you cannot avoid areas where rats have been seen, or are cleaning areas where rats have been, use a solution of one part household bleach and 10 parts water to kill the leptospirosis bacteria.- Protect yourself from contact with their urine: wear rubber gloves (especially if you have any cuts or sores on your hands or arms), boots, masks and some type of eyewear.The CDC says that without treatment, Leptospirosis can lead to kidney damage, meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord), liver failure, respiratory distress and death.Read more: https://www.cdc.gov/leptospirosis/
– New York City rats are big, ugly, and now apparently deadly. City health authorities are investigating three cases of poisoning by rat urine, one of them fatal, the New York Times reports. The victims of leptospirosis were all in the Bronx, the first such cluster of the rare disease reported in a city infamous for its robust rodents. The health department issued an alert on Tuesday following the death of a man in his 30s. Two of the bacterial infections occurred in December and one this month, per ABC7. All three people were hospitalized with acute kidney and liver failure, and two have recovered and been released. In the past 10 years, leptospirosis has sickened 26 people in the city, eight of them in the Bronx. The outbreak prompted the health department to take steps to curb the garbage-trolling rodents and educate residents about the risk. Infections are usually spread when rat urine comes in contact with the eyes, nose, mouth, or through a cut in the skin. People were urged to avoid contact with rats, obviously, but also to clean rodent hot spots with a bleach solution while wearing gloves, boots, mask, and protective eyewear. At an apartment building where one of the three was sickened, residents on Wednesday sought help from the city in having a court-appointed representative take over operations from their landlord, reports DNA Info. "We stand with the tenants," said a statement from Mayor DeBlasio that cited "persistent problems" at the building. (Pet rats were blamed for an outbreak of this rare virus.)