Can a Rat Infestation Make You Sick ?

The year of 2020 brought a great wave of turbulence and confusion into our lives by cause of the pandemic. Additional concerns about our own and our family’s health began to exist in one way or the other. Furthermore, our limited outdoor activity has forced rodents such as rats to desperately look for a source of food and water, resulting in rat invasion numbers to exponentially increase. Rodents are direct and indirect vectors of more than 35 reported serious health diseases. Consequently, in order for minimizing your health risks, it is important to report immediately any signs of a possible rat infestation. We put your safety and health as our number one priority. Contact our rat exterminator Toronto services to serve your needs and to put an end on your worries!

Being familiar with and recognizing the symptoms of common diseases that rats spread is essential. Here is a condensed list:

• Bubonic Plague: is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. This bacterium is carried by infected fleas, known as tropical rat fleas that rats tend to carry. Common symptoms include fever, headaches, vomiting and swollen lymph nodes in the areas where the bacteria entered the skin.
• Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (also known as HPS): is a severe and sometimes fatal respiratory disease. Common symptoms of HPS include muscle pain, fatigue and even dizziness, fever and diarrhea.
• Rat-bite Fever (also known as Haverhill fever): is an infectious disease that is caused by two different bacteria (Streptobacillus moniliformis and Spirillum minus). Rat-bite fever includes common symptoms such as fever, vomiting, headache and muscle and joint pain.
• Weil’s disease (or Leptospirosis): is a blood infection that is caused by the bacteria Leptospira. The symptoms vary depending on the level of severity. Mild symptoms include headaches, muscle pain and fever while severe symptoms can lead to pulmonary hemorrhage, kidney failure and jaundice symptoms.
• Salmonellosis: is a rare infection caused by the Salmonella type bacteria. The most common symptoms include vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea and fever and can lead to dehydration. Certain types of salmonella can result in Typhoid or Paratyphoid fever.

• Flea-borne (Murine) Typhus: is caused by the bacteria Rickettsia typhi that is also carried by the tropical rat fleas. Common symptoms are loss of appetite, fever and chills, nausea and cough. If left untreated, it can cause severe damage to one or more of your organs.

There are multiple ways in which certain viruses can be transmitted. Rats can deposit the viruses in their urine and droppings and therefore humans inhaling the contaminated air can result in getting infected. Another way is by eating contaminated food that rats have chewed before or even getting in contact with an object that has been infected by rat urine, droppings, or saliva. Therefore, as a restaurant owner, you need to know how to get rid of rats in restaurant. 

A rare occurrence but not impossible is getting bitten by a rat and therefore getting infected.

The health risks associated with a rat infestation at your building are of a high severity level considering how easily you can be infected. We greatly advise you to call immediately a professional pest control company in the Toronto area to assist you with your possible rat infestation troubles. Please, do not hesitate to contact Pest Control Toronto – The Exterminators.