On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first death related linked to a vampire bat. According to the report, the victim’s mother said that her son was bitten by a vampire bat on his heel while he was sleeping. At the time, the bite was not reported or treated in Mexico, where the bite occurred.
When the symptoms were not relieved, the victim was treated in a hospital for a spinal tap, where the doctors found he had an elevated white blood cell count. As a result, he was admitted into the hospital for supervision by doctors, who thought he might have Guillain-Barre syndrome. Guillain-Barre is an autoimmune disorder that can cause nerve damage, which would help explain the numbness in his hand.
Next, a fever developed and the victim developed respiratory problems. His pupils became fixed and dilated and his white cell count continued to skyrocket. Other tests for other diseases were run, including HIV, syphilis, and Lyme disease. All these tests came back negative, which led doctors to think that the victim had rabies. At the time no known exposure to animals was noted.
At the time of the victim’s death, the doctors were not able to pinpoint the cause as rabies. This case displayed a 15-day incubation period, which was dramatically shorter than the average 85-day incubation period noted for other human rabies cases in U.S. After the victim’s death, people were contacted in the U.S. and Mexico about the exposure risks.
This case represents the first case of human rabies in U.S. linked to vampire bats. In Latin America, vampire bats represent the number one cause of human rabies in the last 10 years.
This case of rabies may reflect that Latin American bats are moving north due to climate change, which may expand the human and animal risk of exposure. These bats can also carry other diseases and further education about rabies risk and how to avoid these infected animal is needed. Additionally, more information is needed to confirm this potential explanation.
