- Bites from rabies-carrying vampire bats killed 13 people
in a north-eastern Brazilian state last month, the health ministry said
on Friday.
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- The ministry said the record number of deaths was matched
by an increase in bat attacks to about 300.
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- A programme to vaccinate domestic animals and people
deemed at risk will begin in the area next week.
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- One report suggests scientists believe deforestation
may be a factor behind the increase in attacks.
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- Vampire bats feed on mammalian blood, and can pass on
rabies from animals to humans.
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- Laboratory tests have proven that six deaths in Para
state were due to human rabies linked to bat bites, said health official
Fernando Dourado, speaking to reporters in Belem on Friday.
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- Test results have not yet arrived for the seven other
victims, but they displayed similar symptoms and had also been bitten.
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- Three people remain ill in hospital, one critically.
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- The cases appear to be concentrated in areas close to
Marajo - the world's biggest estuarine archipelago.
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- More bats?
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- A health ministry spokesman told Reuters news agency
government scientists believed the more aggressive behaviour of the bats
could be linked to deforestation.
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- Greater availability of livestock, coupled with less
vegetation for fruit-eating bats, could have favoured an increase in the
numbers of vampire bats.
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- Deforestation could also force changes in bats' migration
patterns, affecting their population and behaviour.
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- A doctor at the hospital where the patients died, Carmem
Andrea Freitos, has also noticed changes in the incubation period of rabies
in her recent patients.
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- Typically, patients with human rabies die an average
of 20 days after being bitten, reported the regional newspaper O Liberal,
but Dr Freitos says some of her patients were bitten up to six months ago.
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- © BBC MMIV http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3596691.stm
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