Rats are infecting humans with hepatitis, and nobody knows how
(CNN)In 2018, infectious disease experts at the University of Hong Kong came across an unusual patient.
The 56-year-old man, who had undergone a liver transplant, was showing abnormal liver functions with no obvious cause.
Tests found that his immune system was responding to hepatitis E -- but they couldn't actually find the human strain of the hepatitis E virus (HEV) in his blood.
Hepatitis E is a liver disease that can also cause fever, jaundice and an enlarged liver. The virus comes in four species, which circulate in different animals; at the time, only one of these four was known to infect humans.
With tests for that human strain of HEV negative, the researchers redesigned the diagnostic test, ran it again -- and found, for the first time in history, rat hepatitis E in a human.
"Suddenly, we have a virus that can jump from street rats to humans," said Dr. Siddharth Sridhar, a microbiologist and one of the HKU researchers who made the discovery. It was such an unusual and unprecedented infection that the team wondered if it was a "one-off incident, one patient who was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/08/health/hong-kong-rat-hepatitis-intl-hnk-scn/index.html
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They are being told to be extra careful when touching and handling dogs.
My friend has two small little dogs that him and his wife walk every day and he is very worried about this situation.
How does this happen exactly? I do not know.
That said, I have three cats but they do not go outside at all.
I doubt any of them would be good raters but just having a cat around the house tends to keep the rats/mice away because the scent of a cat is enough apparently.
I live in an area that is said to be rat infested but I've never seen any of them where I am located so maybe the cats are keeping them away.
This whole thing is a HUGE nightmare already. How can we go on existing like this?
The next question becomes, who wants to continue to exist like this forever perhaps dare one suggest? 
ugh! 
I never understood how the Chinese did their astrology but I remember my sister telling me that at the beginning of the year.
I know I'm a monkey, though.
StaySafe!
