XPost: alt.pets.rodents.rats, talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.immigration   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats   
   From: biden.immigration@yahoo.com   
      
   The dreaded rat lungworm—a parasite with a penchant for rats and slugs   
   that occasionally finds itself rambling and writhing in human brains—has   
   firmly established itself in the Southeast US and will likely continue its   
   rapid invasion, a study published this week suggests.   
      
   The study involved small-scale surveillance of dead rats in the Atlanta   
   zoo. Between 2019 and 2022, researchers continually turned up evidence of   
   the worm. In all, the study identified seven out of 33 collected rats (21   
   percent) with evidence of a rat lungworm infection. The infected animals   
   were spread throughout the study's time frame, all in different months,   
   with one in 2019, three in 2021, and three in 2022, indicating sustained   
   transmission.   
      
   Although small, the study "suggests that the zoonotic parasite was   
   introduced to and has become established in a new area of the southeastern   
   United States," the study's authors, led by researchers at the University   
   of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, concluded. The study was   
   published Wednesday in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.   
      
   The finding is concerning given the calamitous infection the rat lungworm,   
   aka Angiostrongylus cantonensis, can cause in humans. The parasitic   
   nematodes are, as their name suggests, typically found in rats. But they   
   have a complicated life cycle, which can be deadly when disrupted.   
      
   Sickening cycle   
   Normally, adult worms live in the arteries around a rat's lungs—hence rat   
   lungworm. There, they mate and lay eggs. The worm's larvae then burst out   
   of the lungs, get coughed up by the rat, and are swallowed and eventually   
   pooped out. From there, the larvae are picked up by slugs or snails. This   
   can happen if the gastropods eat the rat poop or if the ravenous larvae   
   just bore into their soft bodies. The larvae then develop in the slugs and   
   snails, which, ideally, are eventually eaten by rats. Back in a rat, the   
   late-stage larvae penetrate the intestines, enter the bloodstream, and   
   migrate to the rat's central nervous system and brain. There they mature   
   into sub-adults then migrate to the lungs, where they become full adults   
   and mate, thus completing the cycle.   
      
   Humans become accidental hosts in various ways. They may eat undercooked   
   snails or inadvertently eat an infected slug or snail hiding in their   
   unwashed salad. Infected snails and slugs can also be eaten by other   
   animals first, like frogs, prawns, shrimp, or freshwater crabs. If humans   
   then eat those animals before fully cooking them, they can become   
   infected.   
      
   When a rat lungworm finds itself in a human, it does what it usually does   
   in rats—it heads to the central nervous system and brain. Sometimes the   
   migration of the worms to the central nervous system is asymptomatic or   
   only causes mild transient symptoms. But, sometimes, they cause severe   
   neurological dysfunction. This can start with nonspecific symptoms like   
   headache, light sensitivity, and insomnia and develop into neck stiffness   
   and pain, tingling or burning of the skin, double vision, bowel or bladder   
   difficulties, and seizures. In severe cases, it can cause nerve damage,   
   paralysis, coma, and even death.   
      
   It's often thought that the worm can't complete its life cycle in humans   
   and that it ends up idly wandering around the brain for a month or two   
   before it's eventually killed off by immune responses. However, there has   
   been some evidence of adult worms reaching the human lungs.   
      
   Regardless, there's no specific treatment for a rat lungworm infection. No   
   anti-parasitic drugs have proven effective, and, in fact, there's some   
   evidence they can make symptoms worse by spurring more immune responses to   
   dying worms. For now, supportive treatment, pain medications, and steroids   
   are typically the only options.   
      
   Uncontrolled spread   
   For all of the above reasons, prevention and control of rat lungworm is   
   seen as critical. That's why its sustained foothold in the US is alarming.   
   Rat lungworm has turned up in the Southeastern US before, but cases have   
   been sporadic and have not previously been seen in Georgia rats.   
   Previously, the parasite has been caught infecting captive nonhuman   
   primates in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Alabama, and a red kangaroo in   
   Mississippi. In 2018, a study led by the Centers for Disease Control and   
   Prevention identified reports of six cases in humans between 2011 and   
   2017, which could not be explained by travel (four in Texas and one each   
   in Tennessee and Alabama).   
      
   It seems, though, that this mind-marauding worm is quietly building up its   
   numbers and invading new continents and territories—in addition to central   
   nervous systems. The rat lungworm parasite was first described in Canton   
   (Guangzhou), China, in 1935 and, for decades after, was considered limited   
   to disease-endemic areas of the Pacific basin and Southeast Asia. But,   
   with climate change and the human-facilitated spread of rats and other   
   hosts, especially giant snails, rat lungworm is rapidly emerging around   
   the globe. It's now found in parts of Africa, the Caribbean, and North   
   America. Human cases have now been reported from 30 territories. (A   
   relative of A. cantonensis, A. costaricensis, is also found in Latin   
   America.)   
      
   In 2017, Hawaii reported a boom in human infections with rat lungworm,   
   which was linked to the rise of an invasive "semi slug" that is   
   particularly good at picking up the parasite. Hawaii ultimately tallied 18   
   confirmed and three probable human cases that year, a dramatic increase   
   from previous years. A decade earlier, in 2007, the state recorded only   
   two cases.   
      
   Rat lungworm's latest frontier is Europe. Up until 2018, the parasite was   
   not considered endemic to the region. But, that year, worms popped up in   
   hedgehogs on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. And, earlier this year,   
   researchers reported that it had established a foothold in the city of   
   Valencia on the Spanish mainland.   
      
   Sounding the alarm   
   "[W]ith a foothold in Europe it could spread farther across the continent,   
   potentially to more temperate regions, as has already occurred in   
   Australia and the United States," Spanish researchers warned.   
   "Furthermore, as the climate warms, even more northern parts of Europe may   
   become accessible to A. cantonensis, as seen in China."   
      
   With the bleak outlook, it is "imperative that medical practitioners in   
   Europe become more aware of this parasite and the diagnosis and treatment   
   of the uncommon but potentially fatal disease it causes," they conclude.   
      
   The researchers in Atlanta sound a similar alarm, calling for medical   
   professionals in the Southern US to be aware of rat lungworm. They also   
   call for more surveillance, genetic analysis, and modeling, which "is   
   critical to mitigate risk to humans and other animals for infection."   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)