Rabid bats kill 11
Pastor Dale Morgan
Rabid bats kill 11*
From correspondents in Lima
January 31, 2007 09:58am
Article from: Reuters
ELEVEN people, four of them children, have died since Christmas Day in
Peru's southeastern artisan mining districts after being bitten by rabid
bats.
Victims in the Madre de Dios and Puno departments of Peru were bitten by
what health officials believed were the same bats and infected with
rabies, an infectious viral disease.
"There are 11 cases who had rabies and passed away. The diagnoses have
been proven," said Carlos Contreras, regional health director in Madre
de Dios.
He said other people who had reported bat bites in the region were
vaccinated against rabies even if they weren't showing symptoms of the
disease.
Mr Contreras said many of the victims were poor people who slept in open
areas.
He said other people in the region had been instructed on how to avoid
bat bites by sleeping under mosquito netting, for example.
Rabies is a fatal disease and most cases of the virus in humans are
caused by bats.