Canadian health authorities have announced the death of a child from rabies in Ontario after contact with a bat, reports the BBC. The death was announced by Dr. Malcolm Lock of the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit, who explained to members of the board of directors of that unit that the child had been exposed in an area north of Sudbury.
The parents “woke up with a bat in the room,” he says, but not seeing any bite or scratch marks, they did not vaccinate their child. The child, whose age was not released by authorities, was taken to hospital after the incident in early September, before dying there.
A very rare but deadly disease
This is the first case of rabies in Ontario since 1967. Rabies, a rare but deadly viral disease, is usually transmitted to humans through the saliva of a carrier animal, such as bats, foxes or raccoons. This disease can cause serious damage to the brain and spinal cord, and almost always results in death.
This incident occurs as the percentage of bats carrying rabies has increased from less than 10% to 16% in a few years in Ontario, according to Dr. Malcolm Lock. “It is extremely important that anyone who has been exposed consults a doctor,” he insists, even if no bite marks are visible.
According to the Canadian Department of Health, cases of rabies are extremely rare: only 28 cases have been recorded, spread across six provinces, since 1924, all fatal. In the neighboring United States, fewer than 10 people die from rabies each year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a “dramatic decline” compared to the 1960s, in a country where bats are present everywhere .
