Rabies In Children or Do You Want To Build A Bat House?

     Rabies is a viral disease that almost always results in death. There is no treatment for rabies once a person has an active infection, so the only way to prevent death is to prevent the rabies by giving vaccines after a bite occurs.

     The most common animals in the United States that are infected with rabies are raccoons, skunks, foxes, coyotes and bats. From 2000 to 2004, 15 human cases of rabies were reported in the United States and 10 of those cases came from contact with bats. Rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks and mice do not seem to shed the virus in their saliva, but any carnivorous mammal can have rabies. Now that skunks and coyotes have become city-living animals, any out-door mammal is at-risk. Pet dogs, cats and ferrets need routine rabies vaccination.

     If a child is bitten by a domestic animal, the animal can be observed for ten days. If a child is bitten by a wild animal and the animal was killed or captured, the animal’s brain can be examined for signs of rabies. If the animal cannot be observed or examined, the child should receive immunization to prevent rabies. Prevention of rabies after a bite involves two medications – one for short-term protection and one for long-term protection. The first is given in one dose injected at the site of the bite (or split into two shots if the area that was bitten is too small). The long-term prevention is given in four shots – the first on the day of the bite and the others on days 3, 7 and 14 after the bite. The shots of the second vaccine alone cost almost one thousand dollars apiece.

     The reason for concern with bats is that bat teeth are very small and a bat bite might give no pain and no visible mark. Anyone who has had physical contact with a bat or is in a confined area with a bat when the person is not fully awake (like waking up to find a bat in the room or finding a bat in the nursery with the baby) needs to have the rabies prevention shot series.

     Which brings me back to wondering why there seems to be a “bats are your friends” movement in the nature groups. Building a bat house in your yard may decrease the mosquito population but four thousand dollars buys a lot of mosquito repellent.