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Dr. Chelsea Himsworth headed up the Vancouver Rat Project, a study of urban rat populations, the microbes they carry, and the risk that they could pose to people through the transmission of infectious diseases.
 
A groundbreaking study shows some rats in the Downtown Eastside are carrying a bacterial disease that can infect humans and, in severe cases, lead to kidney failure, bleeding in the lungs and meningitis. The first results from the study, published Thursday in the journal PLoS ONE, found rats trapped over the course of one year tested positive for leptospirosis, a disease that mostly causes flu-like symptoms in humans and is commonly found in developing countries.
 
 
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