Kinkini Gupta
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Mysterious Rat Fever Outbreak In Tanzania
A mysterious disease has been identified in the country of Tanzania called rat fever. This disease is also called leptospirosis. Leptospirosis is a rare bacterial infection we get from animals. It's spread through their urine, especially from dogs, rodents, and farm animals. They may not have any symptoms, but they can be carriers. Experts say that this can be a very unpleasant disease but it is not life threatening. But, according to the reports from Tanzania, three people have died after getting infected by this disease.
A team of doctors and experts were dispatched last week to conduct more research on the scenario and they identified 20 cases, all infected with the same disease. Ummy Myalimu, the Health Minister who was supervising this probe stated that the outbreak was caused due to a bacteria said to have spread through the consumption of contaminated food and water. The food and water was contaminated with animal urine, and that is how it spread. Officials have discarded the possibility of other diseases like Ebola and Marburg as all the patients tested negative.
Health officials stated that people do not need to panic the disease is curable and can be prevented. Majority of the infected patients have recovered and two are currently still under quarantine. The symptoms of leptospirosis can start showing within a span of two weeks.
Experts have cited probable reasons of the sudden outbreak of this disease environmental degradation being one of them. The interaction between humans and animal seems to be increasing because of this factor.