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

bbc.com

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

#11

Post by clcaev »

Torn wrote: post #4

This is awful, but why is this on hacker news

It's a great demonstration of how public health communication fails: the most important part is at the tail of the article, below two advertisements, and it's about as obscure as one could write it:

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.

The article should have also recommended they safely isolate the animal to have it tested for rabies.

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

#12

Post by jongjong »

raverbashing wrote: post #3

> 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

[flagged]

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

#13

Post by mattrighetti »

> At first, an emergency clinic prescribed the boy antiviral medication used to treat infections caused by herpes viruses as they presumed he might have Bell's palsy, the temporary paralysis of facial muscles on one side of the face.

> Then he went to hospital on back-to-back visits, first getting a presumed diagnosis of herpes gingivostomatitis, a viral infection of the mouth and gums, then returning the following day after the right side of his face went weak, the journal states.

I know the timeline could not be accurate, but if they mentioned what happened with the bat why wasn’t rabies the very first thing they tested for? Even if the parents visited a clinic right after the fact I fear this would have ended up the same way, unfortunately, especially because rabies symptoms show up after some time

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

#15

Post by techjamie »

mattrighetti wrote: post #13

> At first, an emergency clinic prescribed the boy antiviral medication used to treat infections caused by herpes viruses as they presumed he might have Bell's palsy, the temporary paralysis of facial muscles on one side of the face. > Then he went to hospital on back-to-back visits, first getting a presumed diagnosis of herpes gingivostomatitis, a viral infection of the mouth and gums, then returning the following d…

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 comfortable getting close to a human. Especially more shy ones like raccoons and such.

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

#16

Post by exoro »

mattrighetti wrote: post #13

> At first, an emergency clinic prescribed the boy antiviral medication used to treat infections caused by herpes viruses as they presumed he might have Bell's palsy, the temporary paralysis of facial muscles on one side of the face. > Then he went to hospital on back-to-back visits, first getting a presumed diagnosis of herpes gingivostomatitis, a viral infection of the mouth and gums, then returning the following d…

I don't think they told the hospital about the bat. Probably didn't cross their mind of the reason it was happening unfortunately.

If the hospital knew he came in contact with a wild animal they would have put him on the rabies vaccine regardless of any sort of rabies testing.

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

#17

Post by rich_sasha »

rob74 wrote: 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…

Despite being such a "household name", rabies is in fact the single deadliest disease in humans. If untreated, results in pretty much 100% mortality. There's a mere handful of people surviving rabies without treatment in recorded history.

That's worse than Ebola, anthrax, SARS, MERS, and anything else you can think of.

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

#18

Post by raverbashing »

rob74 wrote: 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

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

#19

Post by mattrighetti »

techjamie wrote: post #15
mattrighetti wrote: post #13

> At first, an emergency clinic prescribed the boy antiviral medication used to treat infections caused by herpes viruses as they presumed he might have Bell's palsy, the temporary paralysis of facial muscles on one side of the face. > Then he went to hospital on back-to-back visits, first getting a presumed diagnosis of herpes gingivostomatitis, a viral infection of the mouth and gums, then returning the following d…

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 :/

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

#20

Post by mingus88 »

Haven880 wrote: post #14

Now I will always ask AI what to do. This incident likely preventable with basic query asking chatgpt.

That’s dumb. Call your local authorities.

I woke up to a bat in my house. Local animal control told us to go to the ER immediately and get the rabies cycle started.

Don’t play games.

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