For most people, a rat is at best an unwelcome guest and, at worst, the target of immediate extermination. But in a field clinic in Tanzania, rats are colleagues – the heroes itself.
Far from a rat in the rue de Nyc in Poubelle, the African giant pocket rat is docile, intelligent, easier to form than certain dogs, and for East Africans, the interpreter of diagnoses of vital life tuberculosis every day.
It was estimated that 400,000 new cases of tuberculosis (TB) were prevented by these rats, whose smell would be a blood blow. As a number one killer among infectious diseases worldwide, many of these 400,000 can be translated into saved lives.
“Not only do we save people’s lives, but we also change these perspectives and raise awareness and appreciate something as modest as a rat,” said Cindy Fast, a behavioral neuroscientist who leads rodents for the non -profit organization Apopo.
“Because our rats are our colleagues, and we really see them as heroes.”
Apopo uses giant pocket rates to sniff traces of tuberculosis in patient saliva. In some parts of Tanzania, a saliva smear test under a microscope by a human can only be 20 to 40% to detect tuberculosis.
On the other hand, a giant pocket rat like Ms. Carolina, a now retired service rat that worked for apopo for 7 years, increased detection rates on 40% tuberculosis samples in the clinic where she worked.
Scientists would take 4 days to analyze the number of samples that Carolina could offer in 20 minutes. For this reason, when Carolina retired last November, a party was organized at the clinic in her honor and she received a cake.
Tuberculosis is sometimes considered a thing of the past – a disease for which doctors prescribed “dry air”, leading modern museum to the muse to obsolete pre -antibiotic medical advice.
But there remains the first cause of death worldwide in a single infectious pathogen, and Tefera Agizew, a doctor and a head of apopo tuberculosis, says national geographic That once people see what non -profit rodents can do to slow down propagation, they “fall in love with them”.
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3,000 times in her career, has Carolina detected one of the six volatile compounds that can be used to identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis, And she obtained a hero’s sending to a special complex to live the rest of her days with her friend and colleague from Sourifler Gilbert, in a shaded enclosure nicknamed “Rat Florida”.
“We have made small special convivial carrot cakes with few peanuts and things that the rat would appreciate,” said Fast. “Then we all hold and applaud, and we give three cheers, hip hip hourra for the hero, and celebrate together. It’s really a touching moment. “
Apopo has also made the headlines for its use of these rats in other rescue tasks: mine clearance.
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One of the major under-decade scourges in the world (a bit like tuberculosis, by coincidence) is the contamination of terrestrial mines. There are 110 million terrestrial mines or unploded bombs in the ground right now in around 67 countries, covering thousands of square miles in potential danger. Thousands of civilians are killed or injured by these weapons each year.
Gnn reported On apopo demining efforts using poached rats in 2020. A rat named Magawa alone identified 39 terrestrial mines and 28 elements of unploded ammunition in an area the size of 20 football fields.
If at the start of this story, you don’t like rats, maybe Magawa and Caroline will have changed her mind.
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