- HeroRAT in Training (photo by APOPO)
HeroRATs Arise!
In case you were wondering, this blog entry isn’t about my heroic, eight-foot-tall lizard person on the planet Thard. No, today “Gundack the kren” makes room for some real-life heroes with four legs: HeroRATs. HeroRATs are African giant pouched rats trained to sniff out buried, unexploded landmines and cases of tuberculosis (TB).
On August 17, AOL News published my opinion piece about HeroRATs: “Support your Local Hero Rat.” Please use the following link to connect to my essay.
http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/opinion-support-your-local-hero-rat/19595717
Also, the communications coordinator at Apopo HeroRATs provided me with some updated information over the weekend. The HeroRATs cumulative total for TB detection (cases missed by human screeners at some local hospitals in Tanzania) is now 964 patients. This means that HeroRATs have increased TB detection rates at those hospitals by 44%, effectively preventing 14,460 additional people from catching the deadly disease.
Let’s give a cheer for HeroRATs!
Laurel Anne Hill (Author of “Heroes Arise”)
http://www.laurelannehill.com