Doctors urge caution over rainy-season travel, floodwater and rat-infested surroundings
Dubai: The family of an Indian expat in Dubai, who died last week during a vacation in Kerala, has confirmed that final laboratory results show he had contracted leptospirosis, commonly known as rat fever, highlighting risks of infection during rainy-season travel and from rat-infested surroundings.
Teejo George, 48, a senior sales supervisor with a Dubai-based engineering consultancy, died at a hospital in Kannur on August 8, two days after being admitted with diarrhoea and body pain that doctors initially attributed to suspected rat fever.
His family has since told Gulf News that further lab test results confirmed the diagnosis was leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread through water, soil or food contaminated by the urine of infected animals, particularly rodents.
The tragedy has struck close to his community in the UAE, where he lived and worked for nearly three decades, and highlighted the risks expats face while travelling to flood-prone areas during the rainy season and at rat-infested houses and surroundings anywhere in the world.
Speaking to Gulf News, Dr Bashirat L. Giwa, infectious disease consultant at Burjeel Medical City, Abu Dhabi, said “rat fever” is a loose term. “‘Rat fever’ usually means rat-bite fever, a rare, serious bacterial illness passed by rodents.
It can also refer to leptospirosis, a different bacterial disease spread through water or soil contaminated by rat urine,” she said, adding that both cause fever and body aches but differ in cause and risk.
“The incubation period for leptospirosis is typically 5 to 14 days after exposure to the bacteria, though symptoms can begin anywhere between 2 and 30 days,” Dr Bashirat said.
Dr Deepak Damodaran, internal medicine specialist at Aster Speciality Clinic, International City, Dubai, put the window from five days to two weeks, with early symptoms typically including fever, headache especially behind the eyes, eye congestion and redness, muscle pain particularly in the legs, and nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea.
Dr Bashirat advised anyone who develops sudden fever, severe headache, red eyes or muscle pain, particularly in the calves or lower back, after exposure to floodwater, mud or animal urine to seek medical attention immediately, since the illness “can progress rapidly from a mild flu-like illness to life-threatening severe disease.”
Both doctors stressed that leptospirosis “is known for mimicking ordinary viral fevers, influenza, and dengue” in its early stage, which is what makes it dangerous.
Dr Bashirat listed jaundice with dark, tea-coloured urine, pointing to liver injury; a sharp drop in urine output or leg swelling, suggesting kidney damage; unexplained bleeding or blood in vomit or stool; severe breathlessness or coughing blood-tinged sputum; and confusion, stiff neck or seizures, indicating nervous-system involvement.
Dr Deepak echoed this, summarising the red flags as “jaundice, reduced urine output, drowsiness, cough, breathlessness or chest pain.”
Diarrhoea can, rarely, appear without fever, particularly in elderly or immunocompromised patients, Dr Bashirat said, explaining that Leptospira bacteria can irritate the gut lining once in the bloodstream.
Patients should never self-treat, Dr Deepak warned, because “vomiting and diarrhoea can lead to dehydration and kidney failure if not closely monitored.”
