Texas teenager dies of rabies from bat bite

Sat May 13, 8:18 AM ET

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Texas teenager who was bitten by a bat while he slept in his home has died of rabies, the Houston hospital that treated him said in a statement.

Zachary Jones, 16, died on Friday, a week after he became ill from the bat bite he received about a month before.

(snip)

"Rabies, which causes devastating neurological damage, is almost always fatal once symptoms appear, as was the case with this child," Texas Children's Hospital said in a statement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060513/us_nm/life_rabies_dc;_ylt=A9FJqYyLnmdEA6sAqRCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-

you MUST assume that it has rabies and may have infected you or your family or pets. You MUST contact your local health department for further instructions. Do not seek advice from the internet, your grandmother, or the local cat collector. Contact THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT.

This disease is easily prevented with post-exposure prophylaxis. Once you get sick from it and it occurs to your doctor that you may have rabies, it is WAY TOO LATE to help you.

Please, bat fans, do NOT accuse me of promoting hatred of these very useful little creatures. Bats ARE beneficial. But they can carry rabies, a FATAL disease, and so any contact with them should be taken very seriously.

and other wild animals in general. Better to lean on the safe side.

Similar to how to treat poisonous snakebites? (sucking the venom out of the wound)

Is a defensive measure taken after the fact. Taking a tetanus shot after you step on a rusty nail is a similar precaution.

Prophylaxis means defense. Prophylactic (condom) shares the same root and both are very similar in meaning.

rabies immune globulin (into the area of the bite wound, ouch!) and a rabies vaccination (tiny little minor shot in the arm) on Day 1. Then, depending on your prior status (unvaccinated vs vaccinated) there is a variable number of repeats of the tiny arm shots over the next month, IIRC.

It's a farsight better, more effective, and less painful than the old duck embryo vaccine they used over 20 years ago - those suckers were HORRIBLY PAINFUL, and if you were unvaccinated you had to have one a day for 21 days and they gave them in the abdominal musculature. OUCH!!!!! I had just ONE of thoe shots, before the newer vaccine came out, while in vet school, and I thought I was not long for this world. The new stuff is SOOO much easier to handle.

Because it travels slowly up the nerve tissue before it reaches the brain, rabies is the only viral disease preventable after-the-fact. There is time in most cases to give the series of shots to stimulate the immune system before the virus reaches the brain and kills. PEP is usually effective.