A YOUNG Northern Territorian was diagnosed with a potentially deadly disease after collecting crocodile eggs in a Top End swamp.
Crocodylus Park landscaper Nathan Trevena said he got leptospirosis after collecting croc eggs from nests in Melacca swamp - about 60km southeast of Darwin - in December, the NT News reports.
But he said he wasn't wearing any gloves. "I obviously had cuts on my hands," he said.
Park zoo keeper John Pomeroy said the 21-year-old got the disease from cutting his hands on sawgrass and then putting his hands in the contaminated swamp water.
"(The disease) is from rat's urine in water," he said.
He said almost every employee at the croc park has had the disease but had now built up an immunity to it. "We've all had it at some stage," he said.
Mr Trevena said on New Year's Day he started to get a fever, chills and bloodshot eyes.
"I thought it was just the hangover from New Year's," he said. But he said the "hangover" lasted almost two weeks.
"It was shocking," he said.
Mr Trevena said he went to the doctor who diagnosed him with a fever but his boss, Grahame Webb, told him he probably had leptospirosis. "The second test came back as a high positive."
The disease has a reported fatality rate of up to 30 per cent if undiagnosed, according to the Centre for Disease Control.
Mr Pomeroy said the park tried to minimise the chance of employees contracting the disease by encouraging them to wear gloves and rub Vicks on their neck and wrists.
He said there was probably a high chance that duck shooters got the disease because they were often wading around in the water.
"They wouldn't have any immunity," he said.
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