Stuff of nightmares as child dies of rabies after bat broke into bedroom while they slept

Stuff of nightmares as child dies of rabies after bat broke into bedroom while they slept READ MORE: Officials increase rabies warnings across the US after people By Cassidy Morrison Senior Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com Published: 22:35 BST, 4 October 2024 | Updated: 22:41 BST, 4 October 2024 e-mail View comments A child in Ontario, Canada , has died of rabies after contact with a bat, the first case confirmed there since 1967. The unidentified child had been in the hospital since early September after waking up one morning to a bat in their room.

Officials have withheld the child’s name, age, and gender to protect the family’s privacy. The rabies virus is transmitted to humans through the saliva of infected animals, including bats, raccoons, skunks, foxes, and coyotes. The Ontario child’s parents did not see any signs of a bite, though, and did not get the child vaccinated against rabies following the incident.

Rabies has one of the highest mortality rates of all viruses - nearly 100 percent - with fewer than 20 documented survivors. The child did not show any signs of a bite or scratch from the bat, so their parents did not administer a rabies vaccine Your browser does not support iframes. Rabies kills around 70,000 people worldwide every year , though most deaths are concentrated in countries with inadequate public health resources, such as wide-reaching vaccination programs for people and animals.

In the US, fewer than 10 cases of rabies occur each year. That ra.