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FALLACY. Bats are mammals and all mammals can
contract rabies, however bats don't naturally 'carry' the disease.
In reality, bats catch
rabies far less than other animals. Less than 1/2 of 1% of all bats may
contract the disease. A variety of mammals can catch rabies, including
foxes, skunks, raccoons, coyotes, bats, foxes, cats and dogs and even
livestock. |
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2. Hundreds people die of bat rabies in
the U.S. each year. |
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FALLACY.
There is only one to two
human deaths per year from bat rabies in the United States. A
person living in the U.S. is more likely to catch polio, leprosy or the
plague than to contract rabies from a bat. Throughout the
world 30,000+ people die from the disease each year - 99% of these deaths
come from contact with rabid dogs. In the United States, however, due to
successful vaccination programs, contracting rabies from dogs and cats is
now rare.
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3. A person can be bitten by a bat and
not even feel it. |
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FALLACY.
Bat bites feel
like sharp needle jabs. According to
the
United States Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
most people usually know when they have been bitten by a bat. However, a bat bite can
be superficial and not easily noticed.
Bats
have small teeth which may leave marks that are not easily seen, so there
are situations in which you should seek medical advice even in the absence
of an obvious bite wound. For example, if you awaken and find a bat in your
room, see a bat in the room of an unattended child, or see a bat near a
mentally impaired or intoxicated person, seek medical advice and have the
bat tested.
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4.
You can catch rabies just by being near a bat.
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FALLACY. Rabies is nearly always transmitted
through a bite. Although rare, exposures can also occur from contact between
infected saliva or nervous tissues and open wounds or the mucous membranes
of the eyes, nose, or mouth. The principal source of rabies exposure from
bats is through careless handling. According CDC, people cannot get rabies
just from seeing a bat in an attic, in a cave, or at a distance. In
addition, people cannot get rabies from having contact with bat guano
(feces), blood, or urine, or from touching a bat on its fur (even though
bats should never be handled!). The rabies virus has never been isolated
from bat blood, urine or feces, and there is no evidence of air-borne
transmission in buildings. Two cases of aerosol transmission were reported
in the 1950s in Texas caves that support very unusual environments. However,
no similar cases have occurred since, despite the fact that many thousands
of people explore bat caves each year. No such transmission has occurred
outside or in buildings. |
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5.
Bats transmit rabies to other kinds of wildlife and domestic pets. |
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FALLACY. There is no evidence that
rabies from bats has ever triggered an outbreak in other animals. It
occasionally does spill over into other species, causing individual animals
to die, but even this is apparently rare. Despite the fact that numerous
carnivores gather to feed on the 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats at
Bracken Cave, Texas, no outbreaks of rabies are known from this source. No
transmission from bats to dogs is known to have occurred, though rare cases
of transmission to cats have been documented. The presence or absence of
bats is irrelevant to the fact that all dogs and cats should be vaccinated.
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6. Bat colonies in urban
settings lead to more cases of rabies. |
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FALLACY. The largest urban bat
populations consist almost exclusively of colonial species, and there is no
evidence linking them to increased transmission to humans. Tens of thousands
of people have closely observed the emergences of 1.5 million Mexican
free-tailed bats at the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas each summer
for over 16 years without incident. In fact, though Austin, San Antonio,
Mineral Wells and several other Texas Hill Country towns likely support the
highest bat densities in America, they have recorded no human cases of
bat-transmitted rabies.
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7.
People catch rabies from bats more than any other animal in the U.S. |
FACT. Bat rabies has been implicated in most
human rabies cases acquired domestically in the United States during the
last 25 years, however, this does not mean the disease is widespread.
Unlike skunks, raccoons and other wildlife, the small size of North American bats makes them appear harmless
so people may handle them unwisely. Additionally,
people who have been bitten might not bother to seek the treatment necessary
to save their lives. It's important
to remember that any grounded bat is more likely to be sick, therefore bats
should never be rescued barehanded. Any bat that bites a human should be
tested for rabies as soon as possible, and post-exposure treatment should
begin immediately unless the bat is confirmed negative.
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8. The media and health agencies always tells the truth about bats
and rabies.
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FALLACY. Although there are educated
members of the media and health officials who provide factual
information about bats and rabies, many incidents involving bats
are ridiculously distorted, causing people to over-react in ways that increase rather than decrease the risk of
contracting rabies.
Over-the-top warnings made by a health officials who are ignorant of the
facts also lead to increase risks of human/bat contact. Attempts to illegally poison
or exclude bats from buildings using
inappropriate methods can dramatically increase human contact, as sick
or homeless bats scatter to exposed positions throughout entire
neighborhoods where they are more likely to come into contact with
children and pets.
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9. Nothing can be done to prevent the
transmission of rabies to humans. |
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FALLACY.
The most
progressive tool we can use to fight this disease is education and common
sense. Keeping domestic pets vaccinated
against rabies is also critical in rabies prevention.
Understanding how to peacefully co-exist with bats, teaching children to
never handle bats and never attempting to rescue a bat bare-handed will
minimize the risk of contracting the disease.
Ninety to 95% of sick bats are not rabid, but
taking a careless chance on being bitten could prove fatal. Any animal bite
(domestic or wild) should be reported immediately to a family physician or public health
professional for evaluation as a possible rabies exposure.
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10. Post-exposure rabies treatment is
extremely painful |
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FALLACY. Vaccinations are no longer administered
in the abdomen. Injections are typically administered in the upper-arm or
thigh. To most people the injections are relatively painless, like a flu
shot or a tetanus shot. |
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