At least six people have died of rabies over the last 12 months in the United States
At least six people have died of rabies over the last 12 months in the United States – the highest number in years, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Wild animals like skunks, grey foxes, and raccoons in more than a dozen places across the country have experienced a rise in the deadly disease, which experts say is partly due to shrinking natural habitats and better surveillance.
“We are currently tracking 15 different likely outbreaks,” said Dr Ryan Wallace, who leads the rabies team at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Areas with outbreaks include Nassau County, New York, which issued a health threat over rabid animals last month, as well as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and parts of Alaska, Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina, Oregon, and Vermont.
“There are parts of the United States where it does seem like we’re getting more calls and more reports,” Wallace said, noting an increase in rabid foxes in the West and rabid bats across the country. “Whether those numbers are truly significant increases, we can only tell at the end of the year. But right now, at peak rabies season, it does seem like activity is higher.”
Rabies is present across the United States
According to the CDC, except for Hawaii, rabies is present in all states, with bats being the most common cause of infection in people and also being the most likely species to be infected with the virus.
Every year, more than a million Americans are checked for possible exposure to the rabies virus, with more than 100,000 receiving a series of vaccines to prevent them from the life-threatening infection, the CDC says.
Experts believe that due to urban growth, which has been encroaching on wild animal habitats, it has been an important factor driving the spread of rabies.
What is rabies?
Rabies is a fatal but preventable viral disease which gets transmitted through the saliva of infected animals, most often by a bite or a scratch. Doctors say once the symptoms begin to appear, the disease becomes fatal, but it can be prevented with prompt post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP vaccinations after being bitten).
In the U.S., wild animals like raccoons, skunks, bats, and foxes are the most common sources, while stray dogs are the main carriers in many other countries.
How does the rabies virus infect?
Doctors say the rabies virus invades the central nervous system and is almost always fatal once symptoms start. Early symptoms, which can begin about a week or up to a year after exposure, resemble the flu and progress quickly to confusion, paralysis, salivation, hallucinations, and difficulty swallowing, coma, and paralysis followed by death within weeks.