Weils Disease

[Ideation 8,216]

Odd question maybe, but does anyone use / carry a weils disease / lepto spray? The kind that kills it off (for your hands etc) ?

[StephenWalsh 73]

Wear gloves. Any anti bacterial spray will kill it, but you should wear gloves anyway. You could pick up the infection before you use the spray!

[Ideation 8,216]

Will ANY anti bac spray kill it?

 

Gloves are definatly a must!

 

This isn't a personal question. . . . . . more a market research question.

[Matt 160]

The main route of entry is through cuts and abrasions, so it's essential that you use plasters, gloves and good hand hygiene.

 

It's also well worth while carrying one of the (free) information cards, as few medical professionals are really aware of it. If you haven't got a card then let me know and I'll post you one when I'm back at home in ten days or so.

[Ideation 8,216]

To be honest, the reason I'm asking is that a friends company has developed a bacterial spray, which specifically targets weils disease etc. It's both a post work cleaning spray, but also a pre work coating for your hands if that makes sense. . . .

[jamie mc 168]

The infection is caught through contact with infected animal urine (mainly from rodents, cattle or pigs), generally in contaminated water, and typically enters the body through cuts or scrapes, or the lining of the nose, mouth, throat or eyes. Only a very few patients experience the severe, life-threatening illness known as Weil's disease, thought to kill two or three people a year in Britain.

After an incubation period that can vary from three days to three weeks, most patients suffer severe headaches, red eyes, muscle pains, fatigue, nausea and a temperature of 39C or above. In roughly a third of cases there is a skin rash; sometimes hallucinations.

In very severe cases, symptoms include haemorrhaging from the mouth, eyes and internally. There is significant and rapid organ damage: liver and kidney failure can occur within 10 days, leading to jaundice (these are the only cases that can properly be called Weil's disease). Hospitalisation, followed by antibiotics and often dialysis, will be required if the patient is to survive.

[Ideation 8,216]

Cheers for that mate, but I know it, and I've read that article before

[mark@mbb 31]

How easy is it to catch only asking because as kids we hunted the tips around stretford / urmston and killed hundreds if not thousands with petrol in the holes didn't have smokers in them days but we got bit caught them alive even pushed them through letterboxes of any one who gave us shit but no one ever became ill and the disease must have been around then we even swam in the canals where there was plenty of them

 

so is this a new disease maybe even a man made one passed onto them

[Mole man Kent 26]

I knew a man who recently died he done surveyes for the e.a and after being splashed in the face by water from a river he died a week later a perfectly healthy man. I have leptospirosis cards if you need them. Handy when you go to the doctors complaining about being ill and they turn you away telling you you've got the common cold and like they said to my friend.

[OldTrapCollector 377]

I had lepto in 2008, caught whilst kayaking in a Welsh canal - two of us got it at the same time. I went downhill rapidly and I had to remind my GP about it or he would not have tested for it until it was too late. Because my specific blood test was done early and they could get to work quickly with medicine I was lucky, and so was the other guy I worked with at the time. My GP had no idea about it though - he had to google it whilst I was sitting in the surgery so he could get his head around what I was telling him or they would have done tests and scratched their heads for ages before diagnosis, and I might not be here now.

 

OTC

[paulus 26]

im sure i read somewhere that 60% of rats carry it, rats are constantly pissing and your never more than so many feet from a rat, so in theory you are likely to come into contact with it on a daily basis much the same as all the other nasty things out there, reducing the risk is what its all about the same as anything else, but being too clean also presents a problem as no exposure means no antibodies, awareness is whats needed by all concerned from yourself to health professionals

[StephenWalsh 73]

The reason infection is still relatively rare is that this particular bacteria needs a liquid medium to transmit from one organism to another. Hence touching rat urine is very dangerous if you have any abrasions, and water sports in lakes, ponds, canals etc and can also mean infection if you have any open cuts on your body. It is apparently difficult to catch via ingesting it, but not impossible. I believe Andy Holmes who partnered Sit Steve Redgrave died from it, he picked up it whilst rowing. It is a dangerous bacteria, in the water (or other liquid).

 

Interestingly the bacteria cannot survive in sea water, which is a reason that we don't see many, many more infections from people bathing at the seaside, especially when sewage overflows discharge untreated into many parts of the UK shoreline when there is an excess of rain, just like now.

 

This is not a really hardy bacteria, it will die outside of a liquid medium and is actually relatively easy to kill, and many of the off the shelf sprays in the supermarket will kill this one.

[Deker 3,478]

Wear gloves. Any anti bacterial spray will kill it, but you should wear gloves anyway. You could pick up the infection before you use the spray!

 

 

The main route of entry is through cuts and abrasions, so it's essential that you use plasters, gloves and good hand hygiene.

 

It's also well worth while carrying one of the (free) information cards, as few medical professionals are really aware of it. If you haven't got a card then let me know and I'll post you one when I'm back at home in ten days or so.

:yes:

Anyone involved in the pest control side will wear gloves in anything remotely approaching a risk situation, cuts or not.

 

If they have any sense they will also carry hand sanitiser/wipes for use afterwards as well!

 

I don't personally know of anyone who has contacted the disease but it is a very real threat and to be taken seriously.

 

Barrattine used to offer free credit card size medical carry cards, not sure if they still do!

[bunny tickler 876]

How easy is it to catch only asking because as kids we hunted the tips around stretford / urmston and killed hundreds if not thousands with petrol in the holes didn't have smokers in them days but we got bit caught them alive even pushed them through letterboxes of any one who gave us shit but no one ever became ill and the disease must have been around then we even swam in the canals where there was plenty of them

 

so is this a new disease maybe even a man made one passed onto them

same as you mark i must have killed and handled thousands of rats ,,but since a keeper friend got the disease (nearly killed him ) i wont touch the damn things without gloves on ,i even dislike handleing the traps now it certainly worries me

[Accip74 7,112]

A work colleague of mine died from it, I think he may of just put up with the initial symptoms thinking it was maybe flu.......the poor b*****d died on his own New Year's Eve.............it was a real wake up call about the environment we were all working in.

Edited January 23, 2014 by Accip74