02-08-2012, 06:40 PM
I wouldn't worry about papayas at all regarding rat lung worm. The risk is ingesting a slug, especially a baby slug that can be 1mm small. Since you don't eat the outside of the papaya, there's nothing to worry about. Kale you can cook and don't have to worry about if you do so. But raw is risky because of the texture, it is very difficult to rinse it well enough to be sure you got every possible slug. Lettuce I don't mess with. If you are going to eat local lettuce, the flatter the leaf the better to be able to really tell if you got everything off of it. Thoroughly rinse and expect each leaf under running water. For me, it's not worth the bother. Semi-slugs are the most likely carriers but all the slugs here can have it. Cooked local leafy greens are nothing to worry about. I eat uncooked tomatoes and peppers from my yard. They are very easy to inspect visually for a living slug.
The incidence of rat lung worm is unknown, and likely underreported. There is no easy way to test for it, and people are sent home from even the ED with it undiagnosed because the symptoms can be similar to many other things. As someone with a background in public health, specifically epidemiology, I don't think taking steps to avoid it is at all paranoid. If anything is delusional, it is the lack of effort by the DOH to adequately address the problem, in the deluded thinking that it is rare and not a risk to the public's health. Statewide it may not statistically be a big problem, but East Hawaii is really the only population center in the state with such a slug and snail friendly climate, so if anyone should be concerned about it, it should be those of us in East Hawaii where we know so many of the slugs, snails, and rats harbor the organism.
The incidence of rat lung worm is unknown, and likely underreported. There is no easy way to test for it, and people are sent home from even the ED with it undiagnosed because the symptoms can be similar to many other things. As someone with a background in public health, specifically epidemiology, I don't think taking steps to avoid it is at all paranoid. If anything is delusional, it is the lack of effort by the DOH to adequately address the problem, in the deluded thinking that it is rare and not a risk to the public's health. Statewide it may not statistically be a big problem, but East Hawaii is really the only population center in the state with such a slug and snail friendly climate, so if anyone should be concerned about it, it should be those of us in East Hawaii where we know so many of the slugs, snails, and rats harbor the organism.