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  Home Page » Features » Columnists » Creating Community » Dont Take Chances With Rabies Seek A Professional Assessment

Don't take chances with rabies, seek a professional assessment

by Jane Looney
Creating Community A man picks up a bat from the middle of the street and throws it to safety in the bushes, but not before getting bitten. However, the skin isn't broken. What should he do?

A mother and daughter awake to a noise at the window and find a bat is in the house. They throw open the windows allowing the bat to escape. What should they do?

A woman finds two raccoons in her house. Shooing them out of the house, one scratches her on its way out. The raccoons' behavior appeared normal. What should she do?

These scenarios are representative of our encounters with wildlife and potential exposure to rabies. In fact, these examples all occurred within the last week in Southwest Colorado. San Juan Basin Health Department receives all reports of possible rabies exposure and, in consultation with state heath department, provides guidance to individuals and their health-care providers in determining whether treatment is necessary.

In each of these cases, individuals did the right thing by immediately contacting either their own health-care provider or San Juan Basin Health Department. Rabies vaccinations were recommended for all four individuals. Rabies is a disease that affects the central nervous system and is fatal if left untreated. Treatment is very effective is given early.

Raccoons, skunks, foxes, coyotes, and bats are the usual suspects for rabies infections in the United States. As many as 40,000 cases of potential exposure occur each year, resulting in treatment. In Colorado, rabies is usually associated with infected bats. While just a small percentage of bats carry rabies, San Juan Basin Health Department reminds people to avoid contact with bats, in order to protect themselves from the risk of contracting rabies.

Bari Wagner, communicable disease nurse for San Juan Basin Health says, "It is important that you avoid handling bats and that you remind children not to play with or touch bats; no matter how cool they seem to be."

In fact, wild animals should not be handled or fed, even if they appear friendly.

Because none of the animals in these cases were available for testing and rabies is generally fatal, it was determined that being safe was the wise course of action. Treatment is almost always recommended for people sleeping in the same room in which a bat is discovered since you can't be sure if they were bitten or not while sleeping. Bat bites are often hard to detect and sometimes don't even break the skin because of their tiny teeth.

If you have been exposed, thoroughly wash any bite wounds with soap and water, immediately contact Wagner at 247-5702, ext. 272 or your family doctor and safely contain the bat to prevent others being exposed, and keep it until it can be tested for rabies. For a fact sheet on how to capture a bat and reduce your exposure, visit www.sjbhd.org/en/rabies.

Jane Looney is the communications director with the San Juan Basin Health Department.