Rats thrive in Sarajevo as increasing diseases cause crisis

In Sarajevo is again the year of rats.

The posts on social media from the residents of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina showed an abundance of rodents floating in the Miljaka River, which flows through the city center.

Saraeewans has long been accustomed to bad public services also publishes photos of overflowing garbage and illegal dumping containers – along with complaints that the authorities have failed to clear dead animals from public space, including playgrounds.

All this makes a wonderful environment for the throbing of rats. For people, however, the picture is less pink.

Health experts accuse the failure of controlling the population of Sarajevo’s rodents for an alarming increase in the number of cases of rats carried.

In just one period of 24 hours this week, the largest hospital in the country reports a dozen cases of leptospirosis. This follows a steady flow of other infections early during the month.

One of the nicknames of the disease, a fever of rats, reflects his key vector of infection. It is usually spread to people through water or soil contaminated with urine or rodent faeces.

Symptoms can range from headache and muscle pain to bleeding on the lungs. The acute form of the disease, Weil’s disease can cause jaundice and even kidney failure.

Local authorities in Sarajevo have announced an epidemic, allowing emergency measures, including long overdue cleaning.

Additional municipal workers, armed with disinfectant sprays, are located to perform urban “spring clean” in public spaces throughout the city while organizing additional garbage collections. Schools are aimed at cleaning their playgrounds, mowing all kinds of lawns and checking their basements for rats.

The current approach to all actions is a complete contrast to the Laissez-Faire situation of the last two years, during which there were no measures to combat pests in Sarajevo. Officials blame a bottle tender process for working with destruction and sanitary warfare, which allowed the city to go to the rats – and on this issue dogs, as stray packs are also a common view around the capital.

The Minister of Health in Canton Sarajevo Ennis Hasanovic described the situation as “not a health crisis but a general crisis”, as local authorities failed to meet the basic requirements of municipal hygiene.

But a former director of the University of Sarajevo University, Seetbegovic, believes that the health situation can get further. Now a member of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, she points out that “well -fed rats” are currently so numerous in the city that “we can also expect Hantavirus.”

At least in one respect, Sarajevo is lucky. Left untreated, leptospirosis can be deadly, with mortality over 50% for people suffering from severe bleeding of the lungs.

But so far, none of the cases reported in the current epidemic has been serious.