![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
ARRGH!
The bat that got into our house night before last is not going to be a repeat offender because despite Rob's care, it seemed to have died of shock; it was still sitting in the juice container on top of the garbage can yesterday.
However . . .
I went to bed last night at 10:15--and woke up at 10:37 because a bat was flying over my head.
THESE BATS ARE TOTALLY UNAUTHORIZED!!!
Rob heard the screams more quickly this time and got rid of this one, too (fortunately, Delia did not wake for all the excitement). He walked it about a block and a half away as it swore at him, and he told it to live long and catch lots of mosquitoes but to NOT COME BACK.
However . . .
I went to bed last night at 10:15--and woke up at 10:37 because a bat was flying over my head.
THESE BATS ARE TOTALLY UNAUTHORIZED!!!
Rob heard the screams more quickly this time and got rid of this one, too (fortunately, Delia did not wake for all the excitement). He walked it about a block and a half away as it swore at him, and he told it to live long and catch lots of mosquitoes but to NOT COME BACK.
no subject
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/bats_&_rabies/bats&.htm
They seem to accept the possibility that a heavily sleeping person could get an undetected bite, but that clearly wasn't the case in your house!
Others reject that possibility:
"researchers gathered at the 29th North American Symposium on Bat Research find no credible support for the hypothesis that undetected bites by bats are a significant factor in transmitting rabies to humans, as implied by the January 16, 1998 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report."
http://www.batcon.org/discover/rabies.html
That site also says that "Bat rabies accounts for approximately one human death per year in the United States," and another site says that "The British medical journal, 'The Lancet', reported less than two cases of human rabies (of all types) per year in the United States between 1980 and 1996." That "less than two" includes all kinds of rabies, not just bat rabies.
no subject
K. [just sayin', but you know how we are]
no subject
Rob's going to take the bat to be tested and we will see.
no subject
I know that several of the case studies I've read have included statements like the following:
"The patient's family reported that he had killed a bat in his house on 10
March [2002], although he had denied having any direct contact."
(Interestingly, it's usually men who contract rabies by animal exposure in the US, and they almost always deny having any animal contact or mysterious wounds.)
The thing about getting prophylaxis is that it vaccinates you -- you'd have to find out how long the vaccine is good for, but you wouldn't have to worry about it again any time soon (certainly, IIRC, there was a 40- or 50-something liver transplant patient in Germany earlier this year who was grateful to have received rabies prophylaxis as a child, because it appears to have saved his/her life when all the other transplant receipients died). So if any more bats were to find their way into your house, all you'd have to worry about would be getting the bats out.
Certainly, the first step is getting the dead bat tested. If it's positive, you and Rob should certainly have the shots, and the Health Dept might suggest the same for the girls.
[/infectious disease geek]
no subject
no subject
I would never have even thought about this if I had a bat in the house--which I certainly hope I never do, for my sake and the bat's. Now I'll know to just go and get the vaccination. I'm a fan of preventative medicine and not having to /wonder/.