Like Tree1Likes
  • 1 Post By huja

Rat Hepatitis in HK

Closed Thread
  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    2,254

    Rat Hepatitis in HK

    One dead, two sick with 'rat' hepatitis
    One of them, a 74-year-old man from Tuen Mun, died. The other two men, aged 67 and 81, are said to be in a stable condition. None of them reported having contact with rodents.
    The strain of hepatitis E they fell ill was not thought to affect humans – until two people in the SAR contracted it last year.

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    3,988

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    7,463

    The government has done a pretty lousy job in rat control. They contract out rat control jobs to firms with dubious ability and reputation, hiring underpaid and non-skilled workers who really aren't motivated to do a good job.

    To be fair, HK is far from the only major city in the world to suffer from rat infestation. New York, Chicago, London and Paris are all know to harbor a pretty substantial rat population. But even so, HK is where cases of rat-to-human transmission of Hepatitis E have the greatest frequency. That suggests the problem is more severe in HK.


  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Tri-State
    Posts
    11,644

    Throughout human history, where there are lots of people, there are rats. Same as it ever was.

    chingleutsch likes this.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Tuen Mun
    Posts
    2,074

    What self-respecting rat needs a city?

    Most of them around here seem to stay up in the country park during the warmer months (plenty of fruit, eggs, smaller baby animals, etc. to eat) then they swarm down the hill when it gets cold. The feral cats get very fat, and the semi-feral ones bring almost daily gifts to their preferred humans. And the !@#$ rats practise climbing concrete walls and getting into our flats if we don't have metal screens up over open windows, fans and any other opening.