A rat that was being kept to feed a family’s pet snake bit a six month old baby, which later died from disease that the rat transmitted to the b
A rat that was being kept to feed a family’s pet snake bit a six month old baby, which later died from disease that the rat transmitted to the baby. According to CBS News, after the baby was bit, the family took him to the emergency room for a fever and a rash, and two days later, the baby was brought back to the emergency room where he died. This happened in December 2014.
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An autopsy on the baby was carried out and the report was released just this week. It determined that the child died of rat-bite fever, which caused the meningitis and myocarditis. The fever, which is caused by rodent scratches and bites, is very rare in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
"The tests came back positive and the tests showed it was pretty dominant in the baby's brain," Cumberland County Coroner Charlie Hall told the York Dispatch newspaper. Hall said that he has never seen a case like it. "It's bizarre," Hall told the newspaper.
John B. Virata keeps a western hognose snake, a ball python, two corn snakes, a kingsnake, and two leopard geckos. His first snake, a California kingsnake, was purchased at the Pet Place in Westminster, CA for $5. His first pet reptile was a green anole that arrived in a small box via mail order. Follow him on Twitter @johnvirata
