Minnesota man dies of rabies after being woken up in the middle of the night by a rabid bat biting his hand
- The 84-year-old man caught the bat and quickly washed his hands with soap and water
- Testing revealed that the bat had rabies, prompting him to begin treatment
- Do you know the man in this story? Email: luke.a.andrews@mailonline.co.uk
A man in Minnesota died of rabies last year after waking up to find a rabid bat biting his hand, US health officials have revealed.
The 84-year-old, whose name is not known, brushed the animal away and quickly washed his hands with soap before going back to bed with his wife.
The couple received rabies prophylaxis after exposure, including a series of rabies vaccines and antibody injections.
But five months later, the man returned to the hospital complaining of severe pain in the right side of his face and excessive tearing in the eye.
He died 15 days later after severe swelling of the brain and spinal cord, according to a new report in the journal of Clinical infectious diseases.
This photo of a silver-haired bat was shared by the CDC when it reported the 84-year-old’s death from rabies. It’s not clear if this is the bat that gave the man rabies
Medics said this was the first recorded US case of a rabies patient who died after receiving prophylaxis treatment in a “timely and appropriate” manner.
Rabies is almost always a fatal infection unless patients are given medication before symptoms appear.
It is caused by a virus that targets the central nervous system and causes inflammation in the brain and spinal cord.
Humans can become infected from rabid animals, including bats, raccoons, skunks and foxes, usually through the saliva of infected animals.
Symptoms usually begin three to eight weeks after becoming infected and begin as a fever, headache, muscle weakness, and general discomfort. But then it will progress to confusion, agitation, hallucinations, paralysis and coma.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says there are typically two to three human deaths from rabies reported each year in the United States.
But in 2021, the latest available date, five fatalities were recorded, including the 84-year-old man and a seven-year-old boy. In the Philippines, four patients have been bitten by bats and one by a dog.
Dr. Stacy Holzbauer, an epidemiologist at the CDC, said the report is a summary of “the first reported failure of rabies [treatment] in the Western Hemisphere’.
They suggested that the treatments failed because the patients had an undiagnosed immune disorder, which made the vaccines less effective.
The bite occurred on July 27, 2020, but the man did not become ill until January of the following year.
He had several underlying conditions, including coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney problems and an enlarged prostate.
On his first visit to the hospital, he was given a rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) drug and three doses of the rabies vaccine.
The man went to hospital three times complaining of sudden pain on the right side of his face and tears in his right eye before being admitted.
By then, however, the facial pain had worsened and he began to experience night sweats, redness of the right eye, facial paralysis, and pain in the left ear.
Further Pap tests revealed that the man had encephalitis, or swelling of the brain and spinal cord. He also developed a fever of 103.1F (39.5C).
Medics intubated the man to support his breathing, but it was eventually decided to stop the treatment. He died 15 days after symptoms appeared.
Tests showed he had contracted rabies identical to that in the bat that bit his hand.