The first reported case in the U.S. of human rabies linked to a vampire bat was reported Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The case, about a year ago, resulted in the death of a 19-year-old man from Mexico.
In the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the case went down this way: The man's mother said her son had been bitten on the heel of his left foot while he was sleeping. The man, who has living in Michoacan, apparently never reported the bite or was treated for it. Ten days later he traveled to Louisiana to work at a sugar-cane plantation, and after one day of work, he got medical help for a variety of symptoms, including fatigue, pain in his left shoulder and numbness in his left hand.
The man's symptoms persisted, and while he was being treated at a hospital a spinal tap revealed a slightly elevated white blood cell count and he was admitted to the intensive-care unit.
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Other symptoms led doctors to suspect rabies.
After doctors made a definitive diagnosis of rabies, the man died.
An editorial accompanying the report notes that although this is the first case of human rabies in the U.S. linked to a vampire bat, bat rabies viruses have been associated with most of the human rabies cases acquired in the U.S. for the past 20 years. In Latin America vampire bats have been the No. 1 cause of human rabies in the last 10 years.
Some research indicates that this may mean those Latin American bats are heading north as a result of climate change, and as they expand into the U.S. more humans and animals could be at risk for exposure.
CDC seeks those on plane with bat
ATLANTA - A bat on a flight from Wisconsin to Atlanta last week has sparked a national search for passengers to protect them against possible rabies.
No one knows if the bat had rabies because it escaped. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday it wants to talk to people to make sure they didn't have close contact with it, putting them at risk.
CDC officials are trying to reach all 50 passengers who were on the Aug. 5 Delta flight 5121, which departed Madison, Wis., at 6:45 a.m. for Atlanta.
The jet was in the air when the winged intruder emerged and repeatedly flew back and forth the length of cabin - as shown in a video posted on YouTube. The flight immediately returned to Madison.
The CDC is urging passengers to call 1-866-613-2683.
The Associated Press
