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Canadian boy, 11, dies of rabies after waking to bat on his face

bbc.com

21–26 of 26 posts

Re: Canadian boy, 11, dies of rabies after waking to bat on his face

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only way to verify the presence of rabies is to bring in the animal that did the bite. But per the article, they released the responsible bat. Normally what you'd do in this case is the hospital gives you the rabies vaccine anyway just in case, because the alternative is if the animal was rabid, you die. Bats are the most common carriers of rabies, and also you should watch out for any wild animal that's too comf…

When I was little I remember rescuing a small bat, brought it around in my hands for a good hour. I guess I was very lucky :/

Not necessarily. Which country were you in and when was this?

(I don't much like this Internet confusion where half the time people don't know what country they're reading about. At least this article has "Canadian" as the first word of the title. Here in Britain I think rabies in bats is a recent thing and even today rabies is very rare in bats.)

Re: Canadian boy, 11, dies of rabies after waking to bat on his face

#22
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was little I remember rescuing a small bat, brought it around in my hands for a good hour. I guess I was very lucky :/

Not necessarily. Which country were you in and when was this? (I don't much like this Internet confusion where half the time people don't know what country they're reading about. At least this article has "Canadian" as the first word of the title. Here in Britain I think rabies in bats is a recent thing and even today rabies is very rare in bats.)

At the time I was in Italy!

Re: Canadian boy, 11, dies of rabies after waking to bat on his face

#23
post #6

Sad, but hopefully this tragedy informs someone about rabies in bats. Bats are the number one carrier of rabies and their tiny bites are really easy to miss. If you touch a wild bat, you need to go to the hospital.

UK: my wife handled a baby bat a couple of weeks ago that was found in a airbnb/hotel in the Lake District. No bites from it. This popped up in her newsfeed last night..... she is now at the hospital getting rabies shots (no symptoms luckily). The medical staff are treating it very seriously!

Re: Canadian boy, 11, dies of rabies after waking to bat on his face

#24

> Any direct human contact with a bat is an indication for rabies postexposure prophylaxi - medical treatment given immediately after potential exposure to a rabid animal. Yes, this is the correct take here This is one of those things that will kill you and it will hurt the whole time you're dying Though on the good side it does away with antivaxxers pretty quickly

antivax or anti experimental-covid-vax? There is a difference.

Re: Canadian boy, 11, dies of rabies after waking to bat on his face

#25
post #24

> Any direct human contact with a bat is an indication for rabies postexposure prophylaxi - medical treatment given immediately after potential exposure to a rabid animal. Yes, this is the correct take here This is one of those things that will kill you and it will hurt the whole time you're dying Though on the good side it does away with antivaxxers pretty quickly

antivax or anti experimental-covid-vax? There is a difference.

[deleted]

Re: Canadian boy, 11, dies of rabies after waking to bat on his face

#26
post #7

> Any direct human contact with a bat is an indication for rabies postexposure prophylaxi - medical treatment given immediately after potential exposure to a rabid animal. This phrase is unnecessarily complicated, I expect something easier to understand from the BBC. It can't be stressed often enough: if there's even the slightest suspicion that someone has been bitten, scratched etc. by any wild animal or even "just…

Yes yes to all this and here's the thing > if there's even the slightest suspicion that someone has been bitten, scratched etc With Bats, always considered you've been bitten. Especially in situations like "woke up with a bat in the bedroom" - unless you can confirm the type of bat, take this as yes, it's hospital time As noticed by the article, bat bites can be pretty painless

Yes maybe though I've read not as much as you think, unless it happens while you were sleeping or drunk.

Besides, even if it is, you will still notice a bad on you, because they have enough weight. You notice a small bug- you'll notice an animal that might weigh as much as a mouse or rat.

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