Pregnant tenant housed in rat infested temporary accommodation contracts potentially deadly infection
A pregnant woman is being treated for a serious blood infection she likely contracted while staying in council provided temporary accommodation.
By Sarah Ward
A pregnant woman is being treated for a potentially deadly infection she likely contracted while staying in council provided temporary accommodation.
Cherrise Massay, who is ten weeks pregnant, is having daily antibiotic infusions to treat leptospirosis, which she probably caught while staying at a rat infested building in Wellingborough, where she had been housed by North Northamptonshire Council since last August.
Leptospirosis, can lead to the fatal Weil’s Disease and is commonly transmitted by rats through their urine. A sample of Cherrise’s blood has been sent off to the government’s UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which is carrying out lab testing.
In November Cherrise noticed rats in her downstairs flat in a converted warehouse in Herriotts Lane. In the months before she had called out the council’s repair team on a number of occasions concerning a brown sludge in her bathroom, which turned out to be sewage coming from a pipe. After the works were done, rats started to come into the property. She was moved to another flat in the building in early December, but says the second flat also had rats and a neighbour told her there had been an issue for many months.
After her eyes and body became jaundiced last month she went to her GP.
She said:
“I went to the doctor and they initially thought it was viral hepatitis, and said I needed to rest.
“But it got progressively worse. I had been getting flu-like symptoms and went back to the doctor last Monday and said ‘I really don’t feel well’ and she started asking whether there could have been anything I had eaten that was contaminated.
“I said ‘I have had rats in my accommodation’, and she said, ‘that’s what it is. I am going to send you straight to the hospital, as I think you’ve got leptospirosis.’
“She sent me to the hospital, where I had tests that diagnosed leptospirosis and because I have had to have antibiotics to treat it, there is a chance of miscarriage. But they said the risk is higher not to treat it, because it can cause other complications.”
Cherrise has been moved to other temporary accommodation at a motel, and is awaiting to hear if she will be permanently housed. She said until last year she had not had to ask for help from the local authorities, but says North Northamptonshire Council has not treated her with compassion or respect.
She says since her diagnosis and hospital treatment the council has not enquired about her welfare and she has instead been interrogated by staff and made to prove her pregnancy status. At the weekend she collapsed and is now being treated with blood thinners for a suspected pulmonary embolism (clot on her lungs). A community nurse is administering the antibiotic infusions daily through a catheter in her arm.
She said:
“The way I have been treated is so degrading. How do they think it is right to house people in places that are infested with rats? I feel like we have all just been chucked in there and they don’t care. I just feel so drained and it has been hell, absolute hell.”
Gen Kitchen, MP for Wellingborough, has taken up Cherrise’s case.
She said:
“This is a truly shocking case. The council has a responsibility to ensure properties they are housing people in are of a decent standard.
“A pregnant woman being housed in a rat-infested property is bad enough, for her to now face such a serious illness because of it, is simply not acceptable.
“Cherrise contacted my office about this at the end of January. We immediately opened a case for her and wrote to the council asking them to move her into suitable alternative accommodation and deal with the rat problem as a matter of urgency.
“The council should now review all the private housing they are using as temporary accommodation to ensure this does not happen again.”
In response to our questions North Northamptonshire Council said:
“As soon as the infestation was brought to our attention we took action.”
Asked about the attitude of staff to Cherrise it said:
“We appreciate this has been upsetting for Ms Massey and apologise for any distress this may have caused. To assess and deliver our statutory housing duties and make sure people receive the right support, we sometimes need to obtain information about a household’s circumstances. We only request what is necessary and we always seek to do so in a caring, respectful and non‑intrusive manner.”
The flat block belongs to a large private landlord and is leased by NNC.
The council said:
“The managing agent has liaised directly with pest control regarding the treatment, and has covered the cost of this work. The Council has not borne these costs. We are working closely with the managing agent and our relevant team to ensure works are completed urgently and to prevent any recurrence.”
The council also said its public health team is ‘aware of the situation and is working closely with UKHSA colleagues.’
The UKHSA told NN Journal:
“UKHSA is aware of an individual currently awaiting the results of laboratory testing and will continue to offer advice to North Northamptonshire Council colleagues as appropriate once these results are available.”
“There have been no confirmed cases of leptospirosis (Weil’s Disease) in Northamptonshire reported to UKHSA within the last three months.
There were 154 cases of leptospirosis in 2024 according to government figures. Most cases are mild, but if not treated, it can cause organ failure.
If you live in Northamptonshire and have contracted leptospirosis in recent months you can contact NN Journal anonymously at sarahward@nnjournal.co.uk
Good lord, stories like this really do need to be told. They really do make me count my blessings. I cannot imagine what it must be like living in a house with rats and then contracting something from them. Serious questions need to be asked how this got to this stage.
Utterly disgusting. Does no one monitor the standards of accommodation provided by landlords?
I guess if a party wins an election by promising to stop the boats going to an inland country area are they really interested in the real issues that affect citizens in their area?