Following a record-breaking number of cases in 2023, New York City authorities released an alarmed warning about leptospirosis, a disease typically found in the urine of the city’s rat population.
Leptospirosis can result in fever, chills, headaches, muscular pains, vomiting, diarrhea, kidney or liver failure, and meningitis, according to experts. It is caused by bacteria found in the urine of infected brown rats – which unfortunately make up the majority of the Big Apple’s approximately 3 million rodents.
Deputy Commissioner Celia Quinn of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued a memo last Friday warning that the bacterium can “persist in warm, moist environments for weeks.”
“Transmission occurs through direct contact with infectious urine or urine contaminated water, soil,
or food, entering the body through open wounds or mucous membranes,” it warned.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that recovery from the vast range of diseases linked to leptospirosis can take “several months” and typically manifest five to fourteen days after infection.
The Bronx accounted for more than a third of the 98 municipal cases that were recorded between 2001 and 2023, with men making up the great majority of the victims. Quinn reports that twenty-four instances of the illness were documented in the city last year, a startling Big Apple record, and six cases have been recorded so far in 2024.
Experts caution that handling garbage cans can spread infection, and they recommend always washing hands after touching potentially risky outdoor surfaces.
