Over 1,100 die of rat fever in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: Alarmed over the spread of rat fever, which has claimed 1,150 lives in Sri Lanka this year, the government has launched a massive awareness programme to control the epidemic.
 
According to the Health and Nutrition Ministry, as many as 4,500 people in the country have been tested positive for leptospirosis, a bacterial disease also known as rat fever, over the last eight and a half months.
 
The number of deaths reported due to the disease till last Friday stood at 1,150. Only 34 rat fever related deaths were reported last year while the number of reported cases was 2,195 during the period, a spokesman from the ministry said.  

Rat Fever is an infectious disease caused by pathogenic bacteria and live in the kidneys of animals such as rats, pigs, cattle, rodents, canines and wild mammals.
 
The bacteria comes to soil, water or food through their urine and enters into human body through cuts, wounds, nasal, oral, eye or mucous membranes.
 
The health ministry has launched various initiatives to control the epidemic apart from sending required drugs to the hospitals and government health institutions, the officials said.
 
Gampaha, Matale, Kalutara, Kegalle, Colombo, Kandy, Kurunegala, Matara, Hambantota and Anuradhapura have been spotted as the the worst affected districts for the disease.  

The ministry has also conducted an awareness raising programmes for farmers' and other vulnerable groups and planning to obtain help from the agriculture and urban development ministry for the purpose, the official said.