Forget hantavirus another rat disease killed a California resident after 200 rodents found in home

Infest and infect.While the world is still reeling from the hantavirus cruise outbreak — and the disease is gaining ground in the US — an entirely different rat-borne disease has claimed the life of one Berkley, California resident.In a public health release issued this week, the city confirmed that a man had died in May after contracting leptospirosis, a bacterial disease spread through infected urine, particularly rat urine.

According to reports, a second victim who lived with the deceased was also infected but recovered following an extended hospitalization.The two Berkeley victims were the first confirmed human cases of leptospirosis in the city in more than a decade.The pair lived together in an RV about a mile from Harrison Street, a homeless encampment in North Berkeley that has been at the center of an ongoing leptospirosis outbreak among rats and dogs since late 2025.City Manager Paul Buddenhagen said the two occupants were using the RV to trap, feed and breed wild rats.

The victim’s vehicle was so thick with vermin that 200 rats allegedly had to be removed before the RV was ultimately destroyed.Dr.Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco, said the sheer number of rodents dramatically increased the risk of infection.“The more rats you have, the more urine you might have, and you increase the chance of at least one of the rats having an infection,” he told SFGATE.

“It’s like playing rat roulette.”The two people “fell sick, but they did not seek medical care for weeks and possibly months,” Buddenhagen wrote in a memo to the City Council.That delay “is thought to have contributed to the severity of their disease.”Leptospirosis, caused by the bacterium Leptospira, can persist for months in soil and water.

In addition to rat urine, it’s also found in the urine of pigs, cattle, horses, dogs, and other wild animals.Infected animals may not show any symptoms that they’re carrying the bacteria, according ...