Rat hepatitis spreads to humans after first ever case discovered, doctors says

'Contamination of food by infected rat droppings...is possible,' say researchers

It is unclear how the virus was transmitted (Velizar Simeonovski, The Field Museum)

A Hong Kong man has developed the world's first human case of the rat version of the hepatitis E virus, doctors have said.

Doctors Hong Kong University, discovered the strain when tests were run on the patient following a liver transplant.

Results showed the hepatitis the 56-year-old had contracted was "highly divergent" from the strain that usually affects humans.

It remains unclear how exactly the virus spread to the patient, although researchers said that he lived in a housing estate “with evidence of rat infestation in the refuse bins".

“We postulate that contamination of food by infected rat droppings in the food supply is possible," they said in the report.

The man had seen rat droppings in his home but not the animals themselves.

He has been treated and is now recovering, according to the South China Morning Post.

Hepatitis E is principally transmitted through contaminated drinking water, according to the World Health Organisation.

It can be fatal for pregnant women.

The study, led by Professor Yuen Kwok-yung and Dr Siddharth Sridhar from Hong Kong University, will be published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a medical journal, in December 2018.