Man has close encounter with rabid bat

ST. MARIES – A couple of weeks ago Jim Thornes saw something in the grass about 100 feet from his Pettis Peak home.

He walked over, reached down and snatched it up.

The bat was dead, but deadly nonetheless.

He didn’t know.

He turned the ball of fur into the Panhandle Health District, which dropped the small mammal into a plastic bag and sent it to a lab.

A week later Thornes got a reply. His bat was rabid – the first found this year in North Idaho, according to Panhandle Health.

“I didn’t know it was a bat,” the retired forester said. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have even touched it. It was already dead.”

He didn’t know either, that rabid bats, once dead, could still transmit the rabies virus to others through contact. “I picked it up with my bare hands,” he said.

A Panhandle Health District expert called to make sure he had scheduled rabies shots. They are administered in a series, with some for the posterior and others poked into the shoulder.

“The needle’s pretty good size, but it doesn’t hurt too much. It just made my shoulder sore part of the day,” the 62-year-old said.

Modern medicine has dispensed with the shots in the stomach, which surprised him. “It’s not like everybody used to say,” he said.

The shots are expensive, however – from $1,500 to $2,000.

In a recent Southern Idaho case, a bat was found on a school playground, said Cynthia Taggart, of the Panhandle Health District.

“About 15 kids handled it,” she said.

“It happens every few years somewhere in the state, a bat will die in a schoolyard. Kids are not going to ignore a dead bat.”

No reports of rabies in humans have been confirmed in Idaho, she said. Rabies is a fatal disease that affects the nervous system of mammals.

The latent virus is often associated with bats.

“There’s always a percentage of bats that have it,” she said. “They really have a terrible lifestyle. They are very poor hygienic animals.”

Bats carry the virus and when their immune system bottoms out, the virus appears.

“It’s endemic to their system,” she said. “That’s why we always test bats.”

People who handle bats, regardless of whether they have cuts on their hands, are encouraged to get rabies shots as a precautionary measure, she said.

“Part of that is, if you rub your eyes, or put your hand to your mouth before washing, without even thinking,” the virus, if it has surfaced, may spread.

To stymie it, five shots are administered over 28 days.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “People get rabies from the bite of an animal with rabies (a rabid animal). Any wild mammal, like a raccoon, skunk, fox, coyote or bat can have rabies and transmit it to people.

“It is also possible, but quite rare, that people may be exposed to rabies if infectious material from a rabid animal, such as saliva, gets directly into their eyes, nose, mouth, or a wound.”

Humans seldom contract rabies. In the U.S., there are usually one or two cases annually, according to the CDC.

Among the 19 cases of rabies in humans from 1997 to 2006, 17 were associated with bats, the CDC reports. About 5 percent of bats tested have rabies.

Thornes, who owns four cats and three dogs, advised pet owners to keep up with their animals’ vaccinations.

“Ours were all a couple of years behind,” he said.

Thornes has never heard of anyone going through a rabies encounter.

“So many people assume it’s not going to happen to them,” he said.