A Brantford, Ont.-area child dies of rabies after contact with a bat, a health official says

A child from the Brantford, Ont., area has died of rabies, a local health official said.

Dr. Malcolm Lock of the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit told councilors at a health committee meeting on Wednesday that the child was exposed to the virus in the Timiskaming region, north of Sudbury.

“They woke up with a bat in their room,” Lock said. “The parents checked, saw no signs of a bite, scratch or saliva, and did not attempt to get a rabies vaccination.”

The child was in the hospital last month. No further details, including the child’s age, were released.

It is the first domestically acquired case of human rabies in Ontario since 1967 and the first ever in a Brantford-Brant resident.

This case shows that rabies, which can cause severe damage to the brain and spinal cord, is still circulating, Lock said.

This year, 16 percent of bats in the Haldimand-Norfolk area tested positive for rabies, compared to less than 10 percent in previous years, Lock said.

“It is extremely important that everyone is exposed in some way [to bats] seek medical attention,” he said.

Treatment should be sought immediately after contact with bats, even if there are no signs of a bite or symptoms of rabies, Lock said.

Treatments include a dose of rabies immune globulin and a course of rabies vaccines, which must be administered as soon as possible after exposure, Lock said. The treatments are almost 100 percent effective.

Since reporting began in 1924, there have been 26 cases of rabies in Canada, according to the federal government, some of which occurred after contact with a rabid animal outside the country. All 26 cases were fatal.

While other wild animals such as raccoons, skunks, foxes and dogs can become infected, almost all human rabies cases in Canada are due to rabid bats.