Dear SOROS,
Did you remember to latch your bedroom window last night?
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On Finding A Bat in Your Child's Room--What Should You Do?
Immunize the Child Against Rabies
IF YOU CHECK ON YOUR CHILD ONE NIGHT, HEAR A RUSTLING NOISE, TURN ON THE LIGHT, AND SEE A BAT IN THE ROOM, WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? After
you scream, if you have to, remove the child and keep the bat
locked in the room. Call the health department and have the bat
immediately checked for rabies. IF THE BAT ESCAPES, YOU WILL PRO-
BABLY NEED TO GET POST-EXPOSURE PROPHYLAXIS (PEP, rabies shots)
for your child, even if there is no evidence the child was bitten.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
"PEP is ... appropriate even in the absence of a demonstrable bite or
scratch, in situations in which there is reasonable probability
that such contact occurred (e.g., a sleeping person awakes to find
a bat in the room or an adult witnesses A BAT IN THE ROOM WITH A
PREVIOUSLY UNATTENDED CHILD, MENTALLY DISABLED PERSON OR INTOXICATED
PERSON)."
This advice accompanies the reports of TWO CASES OF RABIES IN MEN
who had no known contact with bats. The rabies strain was THE KIND
THAT COMES FROM BATS, so it was concluded that the men had trivial
contact, OR DIDN'T RECOGNIZE THE CONTACT AT ALL.
One case was A 65-YEAR-OLD MONTANA MAN WHOSE FIRST SYMPTOMS WERE
HALLUCINATIONS. He was incorrectly diagnosed as having spongi-
form encephalopathy (SIMILAR TO MAD COW DISEASE), but autopsy
proved it was rabies. THE FAMILY THEN RECALLED A BAT HAD ENTERED THEIR
HOUSE THROUGH A BEDROOM WINDOW. THE BAT HUNG AROUND A FEW DAYS,
ROOSTING DURING THE DAYTIME AND FLYING AROUND THE HOUSE AT DUSK. THE
VICTIM FINALLY CHASED THE BAT OUT WITH A BROOM. HIS WIFE DID NOT RECALL HER HUSBAND HAVING ANY CONTACT WITH THE BAT. In the second case, a Washington man with no history of a bat bite was also initially diagnosed as having spongiform encephalopathy.
(Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report 1997; 46(33):770)
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SYMPATHETICALLY,
M.M. |
