- Hello Jeff - This is a really astonishing case.
-
-
- First of all, the school officials were grossly negligent
to keep as a pet, a bat found in the school basement. It appears,
from the article, that the science teacher simply put the bat in a cage
and allowed staff and children to interact with it.
-
- I am really surprised that the teacher did not demand
the school call a veterinarian to check out the bat prior to allowing students
to interact with it.
-
- Rabies can be acquired by more than a bite from a rabid
animal. There have been documented cases of minimal aerosol transmission
of rabies to humans via bats. The setting was inside a cave where humans
had been exposed to aerosolized particles of rabies virus from large amounts
of infected bats.
-
- I simply do not understand why a veterinarian was not
called to the school immediately upon finding the bat.
-
- There have been documented cases of both animal and human
rabies infections over the past few months. We are having a very bad year
for rabies across the US from ocean to ocean and border to border.
-
- I would hope that schools would implement some form of
rabies education to prevent incidents like this one above from occurring.
-
- As far as the expensive and lengthy treatment, I think
that it must be considered that once symptoms commence, there is little
or no hope that a person will survive the disease.
-
- As I mentioned previously, rabies vaccine is the one
vaccination that I endorse. The risk is just too high and Rabies infection
means CERTAIN death. I vaccinate my animals to prevent myself from
being exposed and contracting the virus.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
-
- RABIES, BAT, HUMAN EXPOSURE - USA (WYOMING)
- By Jared Miller
- Billings Gazette, Casper Star-Tribune
- 5-17-7
-
-
- Two staff members at a private Riverton school are being
treated for possible rabies exposure after a bat kept as a classroom pet
tested positive for the potentially deadly disease. On Tue 15 May 2007,
state and county health officials interviewed all 95 staff members and
students at Trinity Lutheran School to determine the level of contact with
the animal. They opted to treat a teacher and a teaching assistant who
had a "high risk for exposure," said Marty Stensaas, county manager
for Fremont County Public Health Nursing.
-
- State health officials, including state epidemiologist
Dr Tracy Murphy, planned to meet on Wednesday night [16 May 2007] with
parents and school staff members to address questions and make recommendations
about possible additional preventive measures. Several doses of rabies
vaccine were rushed to Riverton Memorial Hospital in the event parents
opt to have their children receive the lengthy and expensive series of
shots, Stensaas said. "You just have to be careful any time there
is a possible rabies exposure because it can be a deadly disease in humans,"
Stensaas said.
-
- On Wed 9 May 2007, a staff member discovered the bat
in the school basement, where it was captured and stored in a cage in Steve
Coniglio's 7th and 8th grade classroom. It was also displayed in other
classrooms, and students fed it crickets through the cage. No one is believed
to have touched the bat directly, head teacher Susan Tucker said.
-
- School officials notified a local veterinarian after
the bat died suddenly on 11 May [2007]. Once the animal tested positive
for the rabies virus, the state Department of Health was called in.
-
- Coniglio and a teacher's aide who washed the cage without
protective gloves after the bat died are receiving the rabies vaccine as
a precaution. The treatment involves a series of shots in the arm over
a period of several months at a cost of roughly USD 3500. Stensaas said
parents and their children's doctors ultimately would decide who else might
get the treatment.
-
- The rabies virus is generally transmitted when saliva
from an infected animal enters the system through a wound or a mucous membrane,
Stensaas said.
-
- The virus occasionally crops up in Wyoming, but exposure
is normally limited to a single person, making this case unusual, Stensaas
said. "Generally we only deal with one exposure at a time, and you
can very quickly determine risk," she said. "With this unknown
number, we had to dive in a little further."
-
- Tucker said she does not expect any reprimands to result
from the incident, which she said was an unfortunate consequence of a teacher
trying to turn a fairly normal occurrence into an educational opportunity
for students. She said Coniglio took precautions to make sure students
did not handle the bat and that safety was observed. "What (Coniglio)
did he thought he was doing in a very scientific manner," Tucker said.
-
- Stensaas praised the school staff members for their responses
to the incident, saying the "very organized" school helped make
the assessment work go smoothly. Tucker said her staff was able to keep
the atmosphere low-key despite the potential for upheaval, and that parents
seemed to be responding calmly as well. "My approach about anything
we handle is honestly and calmly, and I think they have responded back
to me in just that manner," Tucker said.
-
- Stensaas said bats are common in Wyoming, and virtually
every building is a potential home for the nocturnal animals. She said
rabies is a threat that can be mitigated with proper education and common
sense, including avoiding animals that act oddly. "We just have to
learn how to live with those risks that are out there," she said.
Officials at Trinity Lutheran School, a private institution affiliated
with Trinity Lutheran Church, are seeking advice from the Wyoming Game
and Fish Department about how to remove additional bats that still live
in the building.
-
- http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/05/17/news/wyoming/60-rabid.txt
-
-
- From ProMED-mail rapporteur Joseph P Dudley, PhD
-
- The teacher turned the bat experience into a teaching
experience but it was probably not the experience he had anticipated. Hopefully,
this will enlighten health departments, physicians, and wildlife groups
to teach public groups and individuals about rabies, animals most often
affected, and signs of the various forms of rabies in animals. They should
also emphasize that rabies is almost always fatal in humans.
-
- Rabies is an acute viral encephalomyelitis that mainly
affects carnivores and bats, although it can affect any mammal. It is invariably
fatal once clinical signs appear [see Rabies, human, bat - USA (WI) (07):
recovery 20041231.3459 for an exception. - Mod.SH]. Rabies is found throughout
the world, but a few countries claim to be free of the disease due either
to successful elimination programs and/or to their island status and enforcement
of rigorous quarantine regulations.
-
- Transmission is almost always by introduction of virus-laden
saliva into the tissues, usually by the bite of a rabid animal. Although
much less likely, it is possible for virus from saliva, salivary glands,
or brain to cause infection by entering the body through other fresh wounds
or through intact mucous membranes. Usually, saliva is infectious at the
time that clinical signs occur, but it is possible for dogs and cats to
shed virus for several days before onset of clinical signs. Viral shedding
in skunks has been reported for up to 8 days prior to onset of signs. Rabies
virus has not been isolated from skunk musk (spray).
-
- Horses and mules frequently show evidence of distress
and extreme agitation. These signs, especially when accompanied by rolling,
may be interpreted as evidence of colic. As in other species, horses may
bite or strike viciously and, because of their size and strength, become
unmanageable in a few hours. People have been killed outright by such animals.
These animals frequently suffer self-inflicted wounds.
-
- The incubation period is both prolonged and variable;
typically, the virus remains at the inoculation site for a considerable
time. The unusual length of the incubation period helps to explain how
post-exposure treatment, including in humans the practice of locally infiltrating
hyper-immune serum, is effective. Most cases in dogs develop within 21
to 80 days after exposure, but the incubation period may be shorter or
considerably longer. One reliably recorded case of rabies in a human had
an incubation period longer than 6 years.
-
- The virus travels via the peripheral nerves to the spinal
cord and ascends to the brain. After reaching the brain, the virus travels
via peripheral nerves to the salivary glands. If an animal is capable of
transmitting rabies via its saliva, virus will be detectable in the brain.
Virus is shed intermittently in the brain.
-
- Hematogenous spread does not occur. Under most circumstances,
there is no danger of aerosol transmission of rabies. However, aerosol
transmission has occurred under very specialized conditions in which the
air contains a high concentration of suspended particles or droplets carrying
viral particles. Such conditions have been responsible for laboratory transmission
under less than ideal containment situations. There has also been documented
aerosol transmission in one bat cave. Oral and nasal secretions containing
virus were probably aerosolized from tens of millions of bats. Aerosol
infection may occur via direct attachment of the virus to olfactory nerve
endings.
-
- The disease is easily preventable by use of a vaccine.
This moderator has long advocated that horses and cattle should be protected
by being vaccinated. It is certainly a cheap insurance policy, given the
fatal consequences otherwise.
-
- Portions of the comment above were extracted from
- http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/102300.htm.
-
-
- For a map of Wyoming, please see
- http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/state/wyoming.html. -
Mod.TG
-
- Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD
- Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics
- Univ of West Indies
-
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php
- Also my new website:
- http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
-
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