Child bitten by bat hospitalized with rare case of rabies, Texas officials say
A child who was bitten by a bat is hospitalized in Texas with a “rare human case of rabies,” state health officials said.
The child’s identity, age and details on how they were bitten were not disclosed, according to a Friday news release from the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Officials said the child is a resident of Medina County and is being treated in Texas. Medina County is about 37 miles west of central San Antonio.
Anyone who may have come in contact with the child or the bat has been contacted by public health personnel, officials said. Those people are being assessed to determine if they should receive post-exposure vaccinations to prevent rabies infections.
This is the first human cases of rabies within the state of Texas since 2009, about 12 years ago. In 2020, state officials said almost 600 animals tested positive for rabies, and about half of those cases were in bats.
The viral illness is typically spread through bites of infected animals, though it can also be transmitted when infected saliva enters through the eyes, nose, mouth or a cut in the skin.
When the virus is contracted by mammals, it infects the central nervous system and leads to brain disease and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Once someone becomes sick with rabies, it is almost always fatal,” the news release says. “However, the illness is preventable if rabies vaccine and immune globulin are administered before symptoms start.”
The department did not say if the child began treatment before symptoms appeared.
The CDC says only one to three ases of human rabies are reported each year. Rabies deaths have declined since the 1970s, with credit to animal control and vaccination programs among other initiatives.
“Yet each year, hundreds of thousands of animals need to be placed under observation or be tested for rabies, and between 30,000 to 60,000 people need to receive rabies postexposure prophylaxis,” according to the CDC.
Postexposure prophylaxis treatment includes a dose of human rabies immune globulin (HRIG) and a dose of the rabies vaccine on the day of exposure, the CDC says. Vaccine doses are also given on days 3, 7 and 14 after exposure. That course of treatment averages about $3,800 over a two-week period, excluding costs of hospitalization and wound care.
“Those who were not contacted have no need for concern over this situation,” officials said.
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