[HN Gopher] CDC Reports Increase in Human Rabies Cases Linked to...
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CDC Reports Increase in Human Rabies Cases Linked to Bats in the
U.S.
Author : infodocket
Score : 47 points
Date : 2022-01-06 20:47 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cdc.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cdc.gov)
| tzs wrote:
| Rabies is pretty damn scary--but please learn what animals carry
| rabies where you live.
|
| I've seen people freak out because they've seen a raccoon in the
| daytime and think (1) raccoons are nocturnal so this one is
| acting strange, and (2) raccoons are rabies carriers, and so it
| is probably acting strange because it is rabid.
|
| In fact in this part of the country (western Washington) from
| 1988-2020 rabies has not been found in any wild terrestrial
| mammal. The only mammals found to have rabies over that time have
| been 530 bats, 2 cats, 1 horse, and 1 llama.
|
| There's a nifty map here [1] showing what animal populations have
| rabies in which states.
|
| So what does it mean when you see a raccoon in the daytime in
| western Washington? It almost always means they aren't finding
| enough food at night so have to put in overtime foraging.
|
| This is quite common around breeding time. The pregnant females
| need more food than normal and often will have to go out during
| the day to get it.
|
| BTW, I believe it is not known _why_ rabies is not found in wild
| terrestrial mammals here.
|
| For squirrels there are at least three theories. (1) Squirrels
| are safely asleep in their nests when bats are out, so don't get
| bitten by bats and if they get bitten by something else that
| something else is probably big enough that the encounter is fatal
| for the squirrel, (2) maybe squirrels have strong natural
| immunity so don't get it even if they do get bitten, or (3) maybe
| squirrels are particularly vulnerable to it so if they get bitten
| by a bat they quickly die before they can spread it and since we
| don't do autopsies on random dead squirrels we come across we
| never find out about the briefly rabid squirrels.
|
| For raccoons, I don't think it is clear why they aren't picking
| it up from bats here.
|
| [1]
| https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/surveillance/wild_an...
| lakhim wrote:
| One of the more interesting government programs is the national
| rabies management program:
| https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/oral_rabies/downl...
|
| which attempts to keep rabies out of the squirrel population in
| the west by vaccinating the Appalachian ridge (and to a lesser
| extent other borders).
| tasha0663 wrote:
| Everywhere except Hawaii: Bats
|
| TIL there are mongoose (mongooses? mongeese?) in Puerto Rico.
| tzs wrote:
| I noticed the mongooses too, and went Googling. Here's why
| they are there [1]:
|
| > The first successful introduction of mongooses to the
| Caribbean region was back in 1872. They were intentionally
| brought to the islands to control rats that were destroying
| sugarcane crop. From Jamaica, they were taken to other
| islands, between 1877 and 1879, Puerto Rico, St. Cr4iox [sic]
| and St. John for the same rat-control purpose. In 1883,
| Jamaican mongooses were imported by sugar growers on the Big
| Island of Hawaii, and then were later taken to the other
| Hawaiian Islands.
|
| http://stoppinginvasives.com/home/database/herpestes-
| javanic...
| tasha0663 wrote:
| Anyone here know what
|
| > Embargoed Until: Thursday, January 6, 2022, 1:00 p.m. ET
|
| means? And why? This is months old by now and would have been
| nice to know.
| munificent wrote:
| My guess would be enough time for various people in the chain
| of command to check the text for correctness, messaging, etc.
| jdavis703 wrote:
| It means they shared the press release to media outlets in
| advance so they could write an article about it. But the
| outlets are not supposed to release their articles until the
| embargo expires.
|
| This is a common practice for both government and private
| sector press releases.
| vmception wrote:
| Increase to 3 in one quarter
| khazhoux wrote:
| I went on a wikipedia + YouTube walk on human rabies last month,
| and it is truly terrifying.
|
| > The period between infection and the first symptoms (incubation
| period) is typically 1-3 months in humans. This period may be as
| short as four days or longer than six years, depending on the
| location and severity of the wound and the amount of virus
| introduced. Initial symptoms of rabies are often nonspecific such
| as fever and headache. Death usually occurs 2 to 10 days after
| first symptoms. Survival is almost unknown once symptoms have
| presented, even with intensive care.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies
|
| Look up YouTube videos of patients if you want to be sad.
| cbfrench wrote:
| Cue the random comment that made me terrified of rabies:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/81rr6f/he_fed_the_cute...
| nathanyz wrote:
| Luckily odds of actually getting it seem pretty low overall
| given the CDC increase referencing 3 deaths as an increase.
| But still, one of those terrifying ways to go.
|
| On a positive note, the act of being alive is also a ticking
| time bomb that inevitably leads to death as well, so there is
| that!
| thatguy0900 wrote:
| As mentioned in the previous comment,its less because the
| odds are low and more becuase the US treats basically every
| animal bite as a rabies case. It takes a very extreme
| containment method to achieve low deaths
| em500 wrote:
| Addressed in the parent post:
|
| >> Only x number of people have died in the U.S. in the
| past x years. Rabies is really rare.
|
| > Yes, deaths from rabies are rare in the United States, in
| the neighborhood of 2-3 per year. This does not mean rabies
| is rare. The reason that mortality is so rare in the U.S.
| is due to a very aggressive treatment protocol of all bite
| cases in the United States: If you are bitten, and you
| cannot identify the animal that bit you, or the animal were
| to die shortly after biting you, you will get post exposure
| treatment. That is the protocol.
|
| > Post exposure is very effective (almost 100%) if done
| before you become symptomatic. It involves a series of
| immunoglobulin shots - many of which are at the site of the
| bite - as well as the vaccine given over the span of a
| month. (Fun fact - if you're vaccinated for rabies, you may
| be able to be an immunoglobulin donor!)
|
| > In countries without good treatment protocols rabies is
| rampant. India alone sees 20,000 deaths from rabies PER
| YEAR.
| watwut wrote:
| Sounds like multiple reasons not to worry and keep doing
| what you want doing if you live in USA
| watwut wrote:
| The tree could have fallen on you. Or any other thing that
| once in a while, very rarely, kills people.
|
| I get the point and it is not all that bad writing. But,
| people don't die of rabbies all that often.
| weaksauce wrote:
| less scary than prion diseases like mad cow... imagine eating
| a burger ten years ago and dying from it. there was a notable
| case recently where a woman in a lab accidentally pricked her
| finger a long time ago and died from it. I believe it was in
| france. thankfully it is fairly rare.
| tibbydudeza wrote:
| Well at least you are dead within a few days but as an insomnia
| sufferer FFI (Fatal Familial Insomnia) really scares the shit
| out of me - you die due to being unable to sleep - not even
| propofol helps.
| tasha0663 wrote:
| We had a bat in the house years ago. In my 3am stupor I tried
| to let it out until Dr. Spouse berated me and said we _must_
| catch it. Darn thing disappeared. Animal control came and
| couldn 't find it. That's when I started reading about rabies.
| Freaked me out. Up until that point I had the attitude that if
| something felt off, just go to a doctor. Nope. Omae wa mo
| shindeiru.
|
| We had booked 2 adults and 2 diaper-age kids for PEP shots when
| I took the day off and turned the house upside down trying to
| find the bat. Eventually I found the dumb thing stuck to a glue
| trap for mice. No rabies.
|
| But yeah, people were looking at me like I was bonkers for
| scheduling the shots. "Did it bite you?" No idea! But I'm not
| going to take my chances on being the second person ever to
| come out not quite dead from a drug-induced coma after symptoms
| set in.
| threevox wrote:
| Sounds like Michael Scott is going to need to organize another
| fun run
| tomschlick wrote:
| Hopefully we can get Olive Garden to sponsor a fettuccine
| alfredo stand for breakfast just before the race.
| sbelskie wrote:
| Myth: 4 people in the United States died from rabies last year.
|
| Fact: 5 people in the United States died from rabies last year.
| pengaru wrote:
| If covid-19 has taught me anything it's that I want absolutely
| nothing to do with bats or their habitats/waste stream.
| Previously I had zero appreciation for what an exceptional immune
| system the only flying mammals had evolved and how problematic
| that can be for other mammals.
| tibbydudeza wrote:
| In flight their heart rate is 1000 beats per minute and their
| body temperature approaches 105F (40C) - their high metabolism
| might explain a more tolerant immune response.
| spazrunaway wrote:
| What's the risk of contact with bats outdoors? I often go for
| twilight walks and see them flying from tree to tree. But I
| sometimes wonder if a rabid one could swoop by, scrape me with
| its teeth, and I'd never even know. Maybe that's too paranoid...
| short12 wrote:
| Rabies is crazy. Basically if you get it you die. There are a few
| exceptions like the girl in Wisconsin a while back
|
| And she wasnt doing something stupid either. If I recall
| correctly she grabbed a rafter in her Attic and bam
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| I thought the survival rate was extremely high if you get the
| vaccine very soon after being bitten?
| LandR wrote:
| If you get the vaccine before showing symptoms, it's pretty
| much 100% survival.
|
| If you show symptoms and haven't got the vaccine it's pretty
| much 100% fatal.
|
| Wild.
| WaitWaitWha wrote:
| > Basically if you get it you die.
|
| Jeanna Giese (and six others) would disagree with you; and
| everyone else who where saved by the vaccine.
| pdabbadabba wrote:
| > Basically if you get it you die.
|
| There's a critical (literally life and death) clarification to
| be made here. As far as I know, it's emphatically not true that
| you're doomed as soon as you are _infected_ with rabies. My
| understanding is that a rabies infection is actually quite
| treatable if caught early. That 's why, if you think there is
| any chance that you've bit bitten by a rabid animal, you should
| seek treatment immediately.
|
| I think its when you begin _exhibiting symptoms_ that you 're
| basically a goner. If that's what you mean by "get it," then I
| don't disagree with your comment. But I'm not sure that's how
| people would interpret it.
| hunterb123 wrote:
| No there's a high chance of survival if you get the vaccine
| and/or glycoprotein before showing symptoms.
|
| A handful of people have survived entirely without.
| tomohawk wrote:
| Great. Pretty soon they'll be requiring us to wield umbrellas at
| all times both indoors and outdoors "just to be safe".
| vnchr wrote:
| It's just 15 days. What's the worst that could happen?
| WaitWaitWha wrote:
| I got bitten by a dog when I was a 13 years old, but the owner
| refused to provide details about the dog.
|
| I had post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies. Five sets of shots
| into my torso.
|
| This was less than pleasant.
| AlbertCory wrote:
| "21 shots in the stomach" used to be what they scared us kids
| with.
|
| A guy I knew recently got bitten by a dog and had to get the
| shots. He said it was five in the arm.
| WaitWaitWha wrote:
| This was... long, long, long time ago in a far far place.
| billiam wrote:
| Do we need any more reasons to avoid bats really?
| tibbydudeza wrote:
| They are mobile germ incubation factories - 25% of mammals on
| the planet are bats just second after rodents.
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(page generated 2022-01-06 23:00 UTC)