Podcast # 489: Bats & Rabies

Contributor: Jared Scott, MD

Educational Pearls:

• The CDC recommends rabies prophylaxis if there was a direct encounter with a possibly rabid animal except...
• Bats are treated differently since their bites may be very superficial and not seen/felt. All people with possible close encounters with a bat should receive rabies prophylaxis
• From 1990-2007 there were 34 rabies cases associated with bats:
• • 6 of these had a reported bat bite
  • 15 there was a reported exposure but no reported bite
  • 11 had no reported bat exposure but DNA testing revealed that the rabies came from a bat

References

Pieracci EG, Pearson CM, Wallace RM, Blanton JD, Whitehouse ER, Ma X, Stauffer K, Chipman RB, Olson V. Vital Signs: Trends in Human Rabies Deaths and Exposures - United States, 1938-2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019 Jun 14;68(23):524-528. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6823e1. PubMed PMID: 31194721; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6613553.

https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/specific_groups/doctors/index.html

Summarized by Will Dewispelaere, MS4 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD