Teach your children not to play with wild animals nor to pick up and play with dead animals. At my local ER, the attending physician looked puzzled about why I was there if I didnt have a bite mark. PEP is now administered by a series of four vaccine injections in the arm plus one dose of rabies immune globulin. Her Wilks score is 302. Bats shouldnt be known for their risk of rabies and late-night visits. Its important to note that the rabies virus becomes noninfectious when it dries out or is exposed to sunlight. By comparison, there are 59,000 deaths from rabies each year around the world, and 98 percent are from dog bites. A Bat In My Bedroom. Then youll come back for three more shots, on the third, seventh, and fourteenth days after getting bitten. There are still 80 100 dogs and >300 cats with rabies each year in the U.S. Avoid wild animals and stray dogs, especially if they are exhibiting abnormal behavior. His nurse commented that I was the fifth bat call shed received in recent months and suggested I should come in only if I had a visible wound. It can also present a serious risk to your health because bats can be infected with rabies. An elderly Wyoming woman died of unsuspected rabies, exposing a number of family and healthcare workers to the virus and necessitating their treatment. Health officials uniformly recommend you get the rabies vaccine if you have been bitten. So I did what any sensible person would do: I dove onto the floor, crawled out of the room, slammed the door, slept on the couch and waited until morning to tell anyone who would listen. But theyre not in agreement on whether to get shots if you might have been bitten because you were merely exposed in a bat-in-the-bedroom scenario. But were actively monitoring it.. Ill never know whether my decision to fork over $600 in ER co-pays and suffer from days of flu-like side effects was a ridiculous overreaction to a minimal risk. She has written about health and science for over a decade, including two books: Outbreak! So if theres even a chance that you (or your child) has been bitten, its probably worth getting the recommended treatment as soon as possible. This includes intoxicated people, children, and people who are mentally impaired. Follow on Twitter @drjudystone, 2020 Forbes Media LLC. 2020 Verizon Media. So when my mother started flooding my email inbox with warnings to look into rabies shots, I quickly dismissed them. Despite the perception there are more bats, their populations are in decline, said Susan Loeb, research ecologist at the U.S. Forest Services southern research station. What you should know for your summer safety: Rabies is a viral infection transmitted by an animal bite, and almost always causes a fatal encephalitis, or brain infection, if untreated. You may opt-out by. Do not kill the bat as it may be a federally protected species. We get the bat-in-the-bedroom question at least once a day in the summer, said veterinarian Ryan Wallace, a rabies expert at the CDCs Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology. As a result, bats now account for 90 percent of human rabies cases and in 2015 surpassed raccoons in the wildlife most likely to be rabid category, thanks to a recent government push to vaccinate East Coast raccoons by spreading an oral version of the vaccine hidden in marshmallows or fish bait. Small mammals like squirrels and chipmunks have never been known to transmit the virus. I am an Infectious Disease specialist and author of Resilience: One Family's Story of Hope and Triumph over Evil and of Conducting Clinical Research, the essential guide to the topic. But Im a deep sleeper and had no idea how long the bats had been hanging out in my bedroom in the weeks Id been sleeping with my balcony door open. I would far prefer having more bats and fewer mosquitoes. When planning an overseas trip, please allow plenty of time to get all the necessary vaccinations. So I called San Diego Countys health department to inquire about rabies, a viral infection that is spread through the saliva of some animals, affects the central nervous system and is nearly 100 percent fatal. There are occasional rabid cattle, horses, sheep and goats. 40,000 to 50,000 people in the U.S. receive PEP each year, at a cost of $3,000 per person, rabies virus becomes noninfectious when it dries out or is exposed to sunlight. Afterward she developed worsening neurologic problems. The CDC has more information on bats and rabies here. A very similar case occurred in South Carolina in 2011. Despite the uncertainty of who should get vaccinated, the rabies story in the United States is a major public health victory. If a healthy dog or cat bites someone, the animal can be quarantined for 10 days; if no sign of infection develops in the animal, PEP wont be necessary. Our health department was far more conservative, being more cognizant of the cost. Advertisement The CDC has more information on bats and rabies here . Yet to drive home the point of what could happen, a handful of bat cases have been deemed cryptic because the victims didnt know they were bitten. Bats tend to show up indoors more often at this time of year because young bats born in the spring are now old enough to take to the air in search of food and new places to live. The CDC estimates 40,000 to 50,000 people in November 12, 2014. Contact with blood, urine or stool (e.g., bat guano), or simply petting an animal, is not considered a significant exposure and PEP is not recommended. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of all the bats that have been captured or tested for rabies in the U.S., only 6 percent had the disease. The typical treatment for rabies, according to the CDC, is a shot of immune globulinbasically, antibodies that already know how to recognize the virusalong with a shot of rabies vaccine. Dr. Alexia Harris, lead author of this report, explained that appropriate and timely rabies PEP is universally effective, and that those who die of rabies either receive no PEP, as in this case, or received PEP without immune globulin, with significant delays or according to schedules that differ from ACIP and WHO guidelines. Rabies isnt a routine childhood vaccine. She consulted with the hospitals infectious disease specialist and called Yee before ordering the shots. In my practice, I had a relatively low threshold for advising it, given the risk/benefit ratio. Those Spanish tile roofs are perfect for roosting, said Drew Stokes, wildlife biologist and bat specialist at the San Diego Natural History Museum. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. She was thought to have a urinary tract infection, a common cause of confusion and weakness in the elderly, and received antibiotics. That means they were exposed, trivialized the risk and didnt seek medical care, Wallace said. If you get a bite, wash it thoroughly with soap and water or, if available, povidone-iodine (Betadine), which has anti-virucidal activity. But theyre under threat. I am an Infectious Disease specialist and author ofResilience: One Family's Story of Hope and Triumph over Evil and of Conducting Clinical Research, the essential guide. When not slaving over hot patients, I can be found playing with photography, friends dogs, or in my garden. She underwent several invasive procedures (electromyography, lumbar puncture, etc.) If spending a long time overseas (Asia, Africa, Latin America), serious consideration should be given to getting pre-travel vaccination. Other exposure criteria to consider: Were you an unusually deep sleeper or inebriated? I was referred to county epidemiologist Lisa Yee, who explained that sleeping with bats in your bedroom is considered high-risk exposure. My guess is that theyre juvenile bats. Get all the latest election results from across the country, with up-to-the-minute maps and more. All rights reserved. Subsequent testing confirmed rabies from a silver-haired bat. In the past, vaccine and rabies immune globulin standards have not been as good there. (Some do, but many dont.). For example, the fox we saw staggering around downtown Boothbay Harbor, Maine, in broad daylight, was certainly cause for concern. And when I hear about the tragedy of 59,000 deaths annually around the world, Im grateful to have access to lifesaving medicines. Rabies can be prevented by either vaccination before an anticipated exposure, as is common among veterinarians, for example, or as post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) after a bite. First, make sure your pets are vaccinated. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Similarly, Ive had patients decline treatment because they couldnt afford it or because they lived in remote areas and could not come in for the series of injections, which used to be much more painful and cumbersome. Theyre learning to fly this time of year and finding their way around. 80 100 dogs and >300 cats with rabies each year in the U.S. Theyre not coming after you or a pet. Consult your animal control people and health department. 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