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Rabid bat bites US boy
11/05/2006 10:11 - (SA)
Houston - A Texas teenager bitten by a
bat while he slept in his Houston area home was in critical
condition with rabies in a local hospital on Wednesday, health
officials said.
The high school boy awoke from a nap four weeks ago
to find a bat had apparently flown in an open window in his
home, said Harris County Health Department doctor Herminia
Palacio.
"What we have is a history of the child waking up from a
nap in his room and seeing a bat in the room and having felt
the bat brush against him," she said.
The boy did not know he had been bitten, which Harris
County veterinarian Dawn Blackmar said was not unusual because
bats have "very, very tiny" teeth.
The bat was captured and thrown out the window, news
reports said.
The boy began feeling ill last week, was taken to the
hospital and diagnosed with rabies. He was being treated, but
Palacio said the chance of survival was poor. Ten people in the
United States have died of rabies since 1998, according to the
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.
"Once a person becomes ill, there's really no effective
treatment. Clinical illness with rabies is almost universally
fatal," Palacio said.
Symptoms can range from flu-like fever and headaches to
anxiety, delirium and hallucinations, the CDC said.
Bats, which wildlife experts say are beneficial animals
because they consume large quantities of insects, are prevalent
at this time of year in Texas because they are migrating north
after spending the winter in Mexico, Palacio said.
- Reuters
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