BMC kills 800 rats in 15 days around civic hospitals for patients’ safety

The insecticide department annually kills lakhs of rats under the monsoon drive across the 24 wards in Mumbai but the surroundings of hospitals are mostly ignored. But this month, when a senior civic officer noticed a rat moving around a BMC hospital. Promptly, the insecticide department was instructed to catch rats around all four major civic-run hospitals and 16 peripheral hospitals in Mumbai.

“In the last 15 days, a total of 821 rats have been killed from the premises of these civic hospitals,” said a senior health officer. When asked if the department would also catch rats from inside the hospital, the officer replied, “It is daily work where the hospital staffers place rat traps to catch rats inside the hospitals. But not much heed was paid to the rats roaming outside—which during monsoon get inside the hospitals, then start breeding.”

Since 2016, over 60 people have succumbed to leptospirosis in Mumbai—a bacterial infection that spreads via the urine of infected animals such as rats and cattle. During monsoon, when the sewers overflow, the rats’ urine can mix with the accumulated water, which commuters are forced to wade into, causing infection. It has killed more people than mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and malaria.

Doctors from BMC hospitals share that during monsoon, the rats get inside wards of the ground floors which houses emergency/casualty wards, raising concerns over hygiene and chances of infections. “We often see rats in the hospital corridors. We can’t use rat poison inside a hospital. Rats also get into the student hostels and the rooms stink,” said a resident doctor from Nair Hospital. Not only that, but rats also find their way into morgues at civic hospitals.

There have been several instances where admitted patients fall victim to rat bites. In 2018, rats nibbled off the right eye of a comatose 27-year-old patient who was undergoing treatment at Jogeshwari Trauma Centre in the general ward at night.

“We hope that it won’t be a one-time initiative. The civic body should regularly screen the surroundings to catch the rats,” said a nurse from KEM hospital.

The BMC has ‘rat labourers’ who work in two shifts—day and night to kill the rats in Mumbai. Every day, over 1,000 rats are killed in Mumbai under the monsoon drive which begins in March. This year, over 2.81 lakh rats have been killed so far. “The rat labourers mix 25mg of zinc phosphide which acts as poison with a kilogram of wheat flour. Then they use the pellets to attract the rats which ultimately kill them,” said the officer.