- Rabies is spreading across the US at an alarming rate.
There needs to be more intensive measures taken against the disease, not
simply monitoring for it.
-
- Humans have contracted rabies after being bit by rabid
bat in furious phase. The scariest part of the disease is that the bat
attacks on humans can occur while the human is sleeping and is not aware
of the bite. There is NO CURE for rabies. Once symptoms begin the rabies
vaccine cannot stop the progression of the disease.
-
- As you know I had requested rabies vaccine for deer and
wildlife in my area. New York State does not have active vaccination program
and refused my request. I have since lost all of my racoons and skunks.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
-
- St Louis Post Dispatch 7 Sep 2004 [edited]
Rabies is spreading across the US at an alarming rate.
Alert is issued after bats get disease
9-7-4
-
- St. Louis County is under a state-issued rabies alert,
meaning that veterinarians and physicians should be on the lookout for
the disease.
-
- The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
issued the alert last week after receiving positive rabies test results
for 11 bats in the county so far in 2004. Most bats do not carry the rabies
virus, but 5.7 percent of bats submitted from St. Louis County tested positive
this year [2004], compared to a 3.1 percent average for the past 5 years.
-
- The state issues a rabies alert if the disease turns
up in a domestic animal or in a significant number of wild animals.
-
- State Public Health Veterinarian Dr. Howard Pue urged
pet owners to have dogs and cats vaccinated and to avoid letting pets roam
outdoors.
-
- People who have been bitten by an infected animal can
be treated with post-exposure prophylaxis. Nationwide, 1 or 2 people die
of rabies each year. The last reported human rabies death in Missouri was
in 1959.
-
- http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf
- /stlouiscitycounty/story/CD58BD4B7088A17E86256F02
- 0013B784?OpenDocument&Headline=ST.+LOUIS
-
- --
- ProMED-mail
- promed@promedmail.org
-
- Bats are often carriers of this disease and may be the
source of exposure to people. Bats can get into homes and in a defensive
mode, bite people. The public health authorities should be called to remove
a bat that has entered a home. - Mod.TG
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads
- /postlist.php?Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
-
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
-
-
- Rabid Bats Can Bite Sleeping Humans
-
- From Patricia Doyle, PhD
- 9-12-4
-
- Hello Jeff - You might want to add this to the post
you have re Rabies MultiState Alert. On that post I brought up the fact
that people can be bit by bats and not realize they were bit. By the time
rabies synmptoms appear, it is too late.
-
- This follow up promed post does substantiate my commentary.
-
-
- From Jo Hofmann
- Jo.Hofmann@DOH.WA.GOV
- 9-11-4
-
- In most areas, only a small proportion of bats are actually
rabid. In Washington State, the prevalence of rabies in captured bats tested
following human exposure is about 10 percent.
-
- Many state and local health jurisdictions don't have
the resources to perform bat removal. What most of us can provide are post-exposure
recommendations following contact with bats or other potentially rabid
animals inside or outside the home, and possibly, referral to local private
companies that specialize in "bat-proofing" of buildings.
-
- Jo Hofmann, MD
- State Epidemiologist for Communicable Disease
- Washington State Department of Health
- 1610 NE 150th Street
- Shoreline, WA 98155
- Jo.Hofmann@DOH.WA.GOV
-
- [In the previous posting, ProMED-mail 20040909.25, the
moderator said the public health authorities should be contacted when bats
get into a home. Indeed, most public health authorities are not the one
to remove the bats, but they are the ones to advise about post-exposure
measures, and that may be more critical, as people can be bitten by bats
and not realize it. - Mod.TG]
-
- [Strange as that may seem, they are many cases on record
where the victim could not remember being bitten, but the rabies strain
recovered from the victim was shown by lab tests to be a bat strain --
see ProMED Rabies, human - USA: MMWR reports 20001218.2215. - Mod.JW]
-
-
- Patty
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
|
