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National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases<\/p>\n
By Stephen Beech<\/p>\n
An 11-year-old boy died from rabies<\/a> 19 days after waking up with a bat lying on his mouth and nose.<\/p>\n The child passed away as a result of the deadly virus despite having suffered no apparent bite or scratch marks, reveals a new report.<\/p>\n The tragedy was the first fatal case of rabies in the the Canadian province of Ontario for over 50 years.<\/p>\n Experts hope that the report on the boy’s death, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ)<\/a>, will provide critical guidance to help prevent future rabies deaths.<\/p>\n Rabies is humans is almost always fatal.<\/p>\n But post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) with a series of rabies vaccines and human rabies immune globulin injections can prevent death if given promptly and before symptoms develop.<\/p>\n Bats, raccoons, skunks, and foxes are the prime carriers of rabies in North America.<\/p>\n camilo jimenez<\/p>\n By Talker<\/p>\n Bur bats are the most common cause of rabies and pose heightened risk as scratches or bites may be small and hard to see.<\/p>\n In the 2024 Ontario case, the boy had no apparent bite or scratch marks.<\/p>\n He visited an emergency department, 19 days after waking up with the bat on his face, with a range of symptoms.<\/p>\n These included vomiting, facial “pins and needles” and numbness.<\/p>\n Once diagnosed with rabies, medics provided supportive care, as there is no cure once the symptoms of the virus develop.<\/p>\n The parents of the boy, who has not been named, agreed to share their son’s case to help raise awareness of rabies.<\/p>\n Report co-author Brian Hummel said: “Any direct human contact with a bat – even in the absence of a visible bite or scratch – is an indication for PEP and should be discussed with public health authorities.<\/p>\n “This is especially important to consider as we approach the summer months, when human\u2013bat encounters are at their peak.”<\/p>\n He says people who may have been in contact with a wild animal that could potentially have rabies should seek medical attention promptly.<\/p>\n In the case of possible rabies virus exposure, public health authorities should be notified and PEP started in consultation.<\/p>\n Hummel, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the McMaster Children’s Hospital<\/a> and McMaster University<\/a>, Ontario, said: “Rabies is almost always fatal, with no established efficacious therapies, making prevention crucial.”<\/p>\n Jake<\/p>\n By Talker<\/p>\n He added: “Rabies PEP is highly effective if administered promptly, in consultation with public health authorities, after any direct human contact with a bat, even in the absence of visible lesions.<\/p>\n “Bats may or may not show classic signs of rabies; hence, any direct human contact with a bat is considered high risk.<\/p>\n “In people with neurological symptoms that may be compatible with rabies, clinicians should ask about exposure to potentially rabid animals.”<\/p>\n There have been 27 confirmed cases of human rabies in the UK since 1924.<\/p>\n All bar one were contracted abroad, primarily from dog bites in South Asia or Africa before the patient returned to Britain.<\/p>\n The only recent case where rabis was contracted in the UK was in 2002 when a licensed bat handler in Scotland died from a rabies-like virus.<\/p>\n The UK has been completely free of terrestrial rabies – the kind spread between dogs and foxes – since 1922.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases By Stephen Beech An 11-year-old boy died from rabies 19 days…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84,23441],"class_list":["post-772713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-stephen-beech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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