Canadian child dies from rabies after bat found in bedroom
A child in Ontario, Canada, has died from rabies after coming into contact with a bat in their bedroom, according to Canadian health officials.
Dr. Malcolm Lock from the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit announced the death during a board meeting on Wednesday, revealing that the child was exposed to the virus in a location north of Sudbury.
“They woke up with a bat in their bedroom,” Dr. Lock stated, noting that the parents did not observe any signs of a bite or scratches and therefore did not seek a rabies vaccination for the child.
This incident marks Ontario’s first domestically-acquired case of human rabies since 1967.
The child, whose age has not been disclosed, was hospitalized after the incident in early September but unfortunately passed away.
Rabies is a rare but deadly viral disease that can be spread to humans from an infected animal – such as bats, coyotes, foxes, or raccoons – most commonly through its saliva.
The disease, which can cause severe damage to the brain and the spinal cord, nearly always causes death once symptoms have appeared, according to the World Health Organization.
Dr Lock said the percentage of bats with rabies in the southern Ontario region he oversees has increased from less than 10% to 16% in recent years.
“It’s extremely important that anyone who has a form of exposure [to bats] seeks medical attention,” he said, adding that treatment and vaccination should be quickly sought, even if bite marks aren’t immediately visible.
According to Health Canada, the Canadian government’s health department, cases of rabies among humans in the country are rare.
Since reporting began in 1924, there have been 28 cases of rabies across six provinces, all of which were fatal.
The health agency said that nearly all human cases of rabies in Canada are a result of exposure to bats, or due to exposure to rabies while in another country.
In the US, fewer than 10 people die from rabies each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is a “dramatic decline” from the 1960s, the health agency said, driven largely by prevention efforts.
There were 25 cases of human rabies documented in the US from 2009 to 2018, the CDC said, seven of which were contracted outside of the country.
Like Canada, humans in the US are more commonly exposed to rabies through rabid bats, which are found in all US states except Hawaii.
In the UK, all rabies since 1902 were a result of an infection that occurred abroad, according to data by the British government. There have been 26 cases reported since 1946, all involving people who got infected outside of the UK.
The latest documented case was in 2018 involving a traveler who was bitten by a cat in Morocco.
