Child dies after contracting rare disease that’s almost 100% fatal
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A child has died from rabies after a bat was found in their bedroom.
The child, whose name and age was not shared, was taken to hospital in early September and later died.
It’s claimed the youngster, who lived in Ontario, Canada, woke up with a bat in their bedroom.
Dr Malcolm Lock of the Haldimand-Norfolk health Unit told councillors at a board meeting on Wednesday the child was exposed to the virus in an area north of Sudbury.
‘They woke up with a bat in their bedroom,’ Dr Lock said, but the child’s parents had not seen any bites so did not seek medical help.
It is the first domestically-acquired case of human rabies in Ontario since 1967.
Dr Lock said the percentage of bats with rabies in the southern Ontario region he oversees has increased from less than 10% to 16% in recent years, the BBC reports.
What you need to know about rabies
Rabies is a rare but deadly virus that can be spread to humans from an infected animal such as bats, foxes, racoons and coyotes.
It is most commonly transmitted through the animal’s saliva.
The infection can cause severe damage to the brain and the spinal cord.
According to the World Health Organization it is nearly always fatal once symptoms have appeared.
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‘It’s extremely important that anyone who has a form of exposure [to bats] seeks medical attention,’ he said.
He said that treatment and vaccination should be quickly sought, even if bite marks aren’t immediately visible.
According to Health Canada, the Canadian government’s health department, cases of rabies among humans in the country are rare.
Since reporting began in 1924, there have been 28 cases of rabies across six provinces, all of which were fatal.
The agency said that almost all human cases of rabies in Canada are a result of exposure to bats, or exposure to the virus in another country.
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In the UK, all rabies cases since 1902 have been a result of an infection was acquired abroad, according to data by the British government.
There have been 26 reported cases of the disease since 1946, all involving people who were infected in another country.
In 2002, a licensed bat handler in Scotland died from an infection with a rabies-like virus that is present in a small number of indigenous bats – though a subsequent study found they pose little threat to people.
The most recent case of rabies was of a traveller who was bitten by a cat in Morocco in 2018.
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