{"id":526135,"date":"2026-06-30T16:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/526135\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T16:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:50:10","slug":"young-boy-dies-from-rabies-weeks-after-bat-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/526135\/","title":{"rendered":"Young boy dies from rabies weeks after bat incident"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A young boy has died just three weeks after he woke up with a bat lying across his face.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shortly after the incident, the 11-year-old was diagnosed with rabies \u2014 a deadly viral disease that is typically transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No bite or scratch marks were visible on the youngster, who presented with rabies symptoms 19 days after the incident.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bats11.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1787094\"  \/>Pic: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Symptoms he suffered include vomiting, facial pins and needles, as well as numbness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other symptoms linked to the fatal disease include fever, headache, muscle spasms, and hallucinations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rabies has no cure as of yet. A trip to the emergency department led to the young boy receiving supportive care.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782838209_393_vaccine.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1787097\"  \/>Pic: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The youngster has yet to be named; however, his family has agreed to share their story to raise awareness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fatality occurred in Ontario, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.extra.ie\/tag\/canada\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canada<\/a>, and is the first to have happened in more than 50 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Ireland, it has been more than 100 years since someone contracted rabies within the country, though there have been cases of fatalities of people who contracted the disease abroad.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bats.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1787095\"  \/>Pic: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The\u00a0HSE\u00a0notes that the infection is rare but serious and spreads through mammals such as dogs, bats, raccoons, and foxes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Infection can happen if you\u2019re bitten, scratched, or spat on by an infected animal, or if an infected animal licks your eyes, nose, mouth, or a wound.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Symptoms can take between three and 12 weeks to appear, but can also appear within a few days in some cases.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/vccine.jpg\" alt=\"rabies vaccine\" class=\"wp-image-1787096\"  \/>Pic: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The disease is found worldwide, but is extremely rare in Ireland. The most common parts of the world to find the disease are <a href=\"http:\/\/extra.ie\/tag\/asia\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Asia<\/a>, Africa, and Central\/ South America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The disease cannot be treated once symptoms appear, but vaccines are available.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People should consider getting the vaccine if they are travelling to another country; or are at risk of getting the disease through work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vaccine can also be administered in the case of potential exposure to rabies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young boy has died just three weeks after he woke up with a bat lying across his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-526135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}