- From ProMED-mail
promed@promedmail.org
-
- Child Attacked By Lyssavirus-Infected Flying
Fox
- By Danny Mortison
- The Townsville Bulletin
- 11-11-4
-
- A flying fox believed to be the one that wrapped itself
around the head of a 4-year-old boy at Bushland Beach near Townsville in
Queensland has tested positive for a rabies-like lyssavirus [Australain
Bat Lyssavirus]. A Tropical Public Health Unit spokeswoman last night said
testing at TPH laboratories in Brisbane had confirmed that an animal
captured
on Monday night [8 Nov 2004] and handed over to Queensland Parks and
Wildlife
officers on Tuesday carried the lyssavirus. "However we don't know
for sure that the bat caught was the same one involved in the attack,"
she said.
-
- The boy's mother, who did not wish to be identified,
said last night her child had to have a number of vaccine injections in
his face, which he found unpleasant. She described the whole affair as
"bizarre". And according to neighbours, the boy might have been
suffocated if help was not immediately at hand.
-
- [A female resident] of Manuka Court, Bushland Beach,
said her 4-year-old neighbour was visiting on Monday afternoon when just
after 5pm a large flying fox flew into her yard, landing in a golden cane
palm about 3 metres from the ground. [She said] her husband, who was on
a nearby veranda, commented that it was early in the day to see a flying
fox. "The 4-year-old and my 6-year-old were looking at it when the
bat made just 2 flaps of its wings and wrapped itself around the
4-year-old's
face," she said. "I immediately tried to hit it to get it off
but it was stuck fast. You couldn't even see his face. The little fellow
didn't move," she said. [She said] her husband rushed from the
verandah
and prised the animal from the child. "He had about 3 puncture wounds
from its teeth on his face and a cut on the side of his head where the
bat clawed him above his ear." [She] said the attack was unprovoked
and anyone, including herself or her baby she was nursing or her son, could
easily have been the target of the flying fox, which she said appeared
sick and slow.
-
- After the ambulance was called [she] said she and her
husband searched their yard and found the flying fox had moved to another
low shrub. "We used a fishing net to catch it about 15 minutes after
the attack occurred," she said. "We thought we had better catch
it, just in case, and the Queensland Parks people came yesterday morning
(Tuesday) to pick it up."
-
- [She] said she wanted to correct remarks made by a
wildlife
expert in Tuesday's Townsville Bulletin claiming flying foxes did not
attack
people. "This animal flew a couple of metres straight down and latched
on to the child without any provocation," she said. The spokeswoman
for the Tropical Public Health Unit said this was the 3rd flying fox to
be involved in incidents in the past 2 months in which people were injured,
that had been found to be carrying the lyssavirus.
-
- http://townsvillebulletin.news.com.au/
- common/story_page/0,7034,113519
- 45%255E14787,00.html
-
- ProMED-mail
- promed@promedmail.org
-
- [_Australian ba lyssavirus_, first isolated in 1996,
is a rhabdovirus which is classified now as a species of the genus
_Lyssavirus_.
It is closely related to rabies virus (the type species of the genus) and
has been responsible for fatal rabies-like disease in at least 2 people
in contact with large Australian bats of the flying fox type. Australian
bat lyssavirus appears to be distributed along the east coast of Australia
and has been isolated from 3 of the 4 species of flying foxes.
Post-exposure
treatment with standard rabies virus vaccine and rabies immune globulin
is believed to be protective and should be obligatory following any close
contact with any large Australian bat exhibiting abnormal behavior. -
Mod.CP]
-
- 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
|
