An elderly man was hospitalized with a severe bacterial infection after being bitten by a rat that was lurking in his toilet.
In an unusual new medical case, a 76-year-old man from Canada was trying to remove a rat in his toilet bowl when the rodent gave him a nasty bite.
He went to the emergency room at the hospital to receive basic wound care and a tetanus booster. He was then sent home by medics after examination, as reported by The New York Post.
However, about 18 days later, the man was back in the hospital after suffering from a myriad of symptoms such as fever, headaches, and abdominal pain for several days, according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Medical tests showed that the patient's heart rate had skyrocketed, his blood pressure was low and his kidneys were damaged.
Doctors soon admitted him to the intensive care unit (ICU) after he exhibited signs of multi-organ dysfunction and sepsis - a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection, per Mayo Clinic.
Although the wounds on two fingers the rat had bitten had mostly healed, doctors suspected it could have something to do with his deteriorating condition so they analyzed blood and urine samples.
It was discovered that the man had leptospirosis, which is a disease caused by bacteria in the genus Leptospira - as explained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
People with the infection most often develop mild symptoms, such as fever, headache, and muscle pain. Other common symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, cough, and sometimes a skin rash.
The bacteria that cause leptospirosis, also called Weil's disease, is dispersed through the urine of infected animals, which can get into water or soil and can survive there for weeks to months.
Many different types of wild and domestic animals harbor the disease. This includes Cattle, Pigs, Horses, Dogs, Rodents, and wild animals. When these animals are contaminated, they may have no symptoms of the infection.
However, humans can become infected by touching the urine or other body fluids (except saliva) from infected animals, or, by contact with water, soil, or food contaminated with the urine of those animals.
Each year, more than one million cases of leptospirosis are reported worldwide, resulting in almost 60,000 deaths. Around 100 to 150 cases occur in the U.S. annually, as cited by Live Science.
In this case, the Canadian man was given antibiotics as well as other treatments to manage his kidney damage and low platelet levels. He was released from the ICU after three days.
