Rat lung worm disease is an extremely rare cause of meningitis in Australia. It is associated with eating infected snails and slugs. Most people make a full recovery but occasionally it can cause serious illness. Simple precautions reduce the risk of the disease.
AROUND 5% OF common garden snails in and around Sydney, NSW, contain larvae of the parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis, commonly known as the rat lungworm.
Rat lung worm disease is rare in Australia, but has gained notoriety in recent years following a few widely-publicised cases, such as the tragic story of Sam Ballard, a 19-year-old who developed a brain infection after eating a slug on a dare.
Humans can become infected with A. cantonensis if they eat (intentionally or otherwise) a raw or undercooked infected intermediate host, thereby ingesting the parasite. For more information on the life-cycle of A. cantonensis, visit the CDC website.
Angiostrongylus is a parasitic nematode that can cause severe gastrointestinal or central nervous system disease in humans, depending on the species. Angiostrongylus cantonensis, which is also known as the rat lungworm, causes eosinophilic meningitis and is prevalent in Southeast Asia and tropical Pacific islands.
People with this condition may have headaches, a stiff neck, tingling or pain in the skin, fever, nausea, and vomiting. The time between eating the slug or snail and getting sick is usually 1-3 weeks.
Ansdell says the new guidelines emphasize both early diagnosis and early treatment using high dose corticosteroids to reduce inflammation in the central nervous system, and antiworm treatment with albendazole to kill worms at an early stage before they grow and cause significant damage.
Early symptoms are general and include fever, fatigue, and muscle pain. Other symptoms may include headache, nausea (a feeling of sickness in the stomach), vomiting, diarrhea (loose stool/poop) and dizziness.
For added prevention, cooking food by boiling for 3 to 5 minutes or heating to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 15 seconds can kill the parasite that causes rat lungworm disease.”
The parasites can be killed with specific antiparasitic drugs depending on the type of lungworm. Different medications include ivermectin, fenbendazole (Panacur™), Moxidectin+Imidacloprid (Advantage Multi™), and Milbemycin Oxime+praziquantel (Interceptor Plus™).
Using or drinking water from catchment systems that have been contaminated by the parasite may also cause the disease, but more research is needed to determine the extent to which this is happening. In East Hawaiʻi, about 94% of the rat population is infected with rat lungworm, according to Dr.
Use clean, safe, potable water to wash the raw produce before storing in the refrigerator. Before cooking food, wash hands with soap and water. Using boiling water to clean the produce reduces the risk of infection. Paratenic hosts, such as frogs and freshwater prawns, can also be infected with the larvae.
If you are pretty sure the holes in your leafy vegetables were caused by insects or slugs, they should be safe to eat, as long as you wash them thoroughly, and remove any damaged portions. However, if mammals have been through your garden, you should avoid damaged greens.
Infected slugs and snails also transmit rat lungworms to humans. All known cases of rat lungworm disease are linked to slug and snail contact. Slugs and snails can contaminate garden produce with rat lungworm parasites.
Lungworm infections in dogs are usually caused by the tracheal worm Oslerus osleri. They have been found in the United States, South Africa, New Zealand, India, Great Britain, France, and Australia. Adult lungworms live in nodules in the trachea of dogs, and larvated eggs laid by adults hatch there.
Doctor Candice Denham says rat lungworm in dogs is rare, but it happens. “Any signs of pain, weakness in the back legs, decrease in appetite or letheargy, those are signs you should check in with your vet,” said Denham.
It is also called the rat lungworm. The adult form of the parasite is found only in rodents. Infected rats pass larvae of the parasite in their feces. Snails and slugs get infected by ingesting the larvae.
Not all slugs or snails contain lungworm larvae, but according to an almost unbelievable Countryfile statistic, an average British garden is home to more than 20,000 slugs and snails. The risk of a dog encountering a lungworm host is therefore high.
Some mice and rats can carry harmful diseases, such as HPS, Leptospirosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, plague, and typhus. The best way to protect you and your family from these diseases is to keep mice and rats out of your home.
Introduced rodents can: Carry diseases such as leptospirosis and typhus fever. Contaminate food with their hair, droppings and urine, resulting in food poisoning and spoilage.
A parasite called rat lungworm, which can get into people's brains, has infected 12 people including toddlers in the continental U.S. in recent years, federal health officials said Thursday.
Lungworms are hair-shaped worms that generally range from one to four centimeters in length. The females are significantly longer than the males. Two species of this worm are able to infect cats. Aelurostrongylus abstrusus , also known as Feline Lungworm, is the most common lungworm found in cats.
This potentially deadly parasite is called rat lungworm after the location that the worm is found in its natural host, the rat. The worm lives in the blood vessels of the rat's lung, and the female worms produce offspring (larvae) that are then shed in the rat's stool into the surrounding environment.