A couple in Hai Duong had to be hospitalized after being bitten by rats.

The couple from Hai Duong, Mr. NTP (68 years old) and Mrs. PTV (61 years old), were bitten on the finger while chasing a mouse and it bled. The patient thought it was simple, just wash his hands with soap and put some essential oil on the wound.

Five days later, both patients experienced high fever, sometimes even lying lethargic, delirious, chills all over the body, swollen and painful rat bites. After two days of monitoring at home, the patients went to the district hospital for examination, received a tetanus shot and were transferred to Bach Mai Hospital.

At the Tropical Disease Center, Bach Mai Hospital, two patients were diagnosed with "rat-bite fever" (Sodoku). After more than a week of active treatment with an effective antibiotic regimen, the clinical signs improved significantly and the two patients were discharged from the hospital.

Associate Professor, Dr. Do Duy Cuong, Director of the Center for Tropical Diseases, said that rat-bite fever (Sodoku) is a systemic infection and poisoning caused by a spirochete called Spirillum minus found in the throat of rats, transmitted directly through rat bites. The incubation period of the disease is from 3 days to 2 weeks.

Symptoms of the disease are often high fever, chills that come and go, muscle pain, joint pain, headache, sore throat, lymphadenitis, vomiting, fatigue, and even delirium and coma.

If the poisoning is severe and not treated promptly, it can lead to complications such as meningitis, hepatitis, pleurisy, myocarditis, arthritis, and more seriously, sepsis, endocarditis, and even death. At the rat bite site, there may be lesions such as swelling, edema, sometimes rashes, necrotic hemorrhage, and reactive lymphadenopathy in the area.

"For some time now, patients and their families, even medical staff and medical students, have misunderstood that when they are bitten by a rat, they immediately think of the plague. In fact, rat-bite fever (Sodoku) and the plague are two different diseases. Plague is an acute infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted from rodents (including rats) to humans through the intermediate host of fleas, or from person to person through the respiratory tract. Therefore, rats are also victims of the plague," Associate Professor, Dr. Do Duy Cuong shared.

There are also concerns that rabies can be transmitted by rat bites, but in reality there have been no records of rats transmitting rabies to humans. Tetanus is a systemic infection caused by the bacterium Clostridium tetani, the rate of transmission to rats is low, but precautions must still be taken because rats live in humid environments, and rat bites are anaerobic places that can be favorable conditions for tetanus spores to develop.

Infection - poisoning due to rat bites is not a common disease, however, in reality, there have been many recorded cases requiring hospitalization and many complications, complicated disease progression, threatening life. Therefore, Associate Professor, Dr. Do Duy Cuong recommends people to take preventive measures:

The house is always clean and airy so that mice have no place to live.

Food and drinks are always carefully preserved, not scattered or left open, creating conditions for rats to enter and destroy.

Kill rats, disinfect, and properly dispose of waste. Do not use water or food that may be contaminated by rats. Pet rat owners should also be careful when handling rats and clean their cages properly.

When bitten or scratched by a rat, the wound should be cleaned with clean water and soap for the first 15 minutes, then washed with antiseptic solutions such as 90-degree alcohol, iodine, betadine, etc. and immediately taken to the nearest medical facility for timely treatment. At the medical facility, the patient is assessed for exposure risk and may be vaccinated against tetanus and given beta-lactam antibiotics (oral or injectable) for 5-7 days. If the patient experiences high fever, swollen wounds, swollen lymph nodes, etc., they should go to a medical facility for examination and timely treatment.