Canadian boy, 11, dies of rabies after waking to bat on his face

> At first, an emergency clinic prescribed the boy antiviral medication used to treat infections caused by herpes viruses as they presumed he might have Bell's palsy, the temporary paralysis of facial muscles on one side of the face.

> Then he went to hospital on back-to-back visits, first getting a presumed diagnosis of herpes gingivostomatitis, a viral infection of the mouth and gums, then returning the following day after the right side of his face went weak, the journal states.

I know the timeline could not be accurate, but if they mentioned what happened with the bat why wasn’t rabies the very first thing they tested for? Even if the parents visited a clinic right after the fact I fear this would have ended up the same way, unfortunately, especially because rabies symptoms show up after some time

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cogman10 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Sad, but hopefully this tragedy informs someone about rabies in bats.

Bats are the number one carrier of rabies and their tiny bites are really easy to miss. If you touch a wild bat, you need to go to the hospital.

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Torn an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is awful, but why is this on hacker news

	▲	clcaev an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It's a great demonstration of how public health communication fails: the most important part is at the tail of the article, below two advertisements, and it's about as obscure as one could write it: Any direct human contact with a bat is an indication for rabies postexposure prophylaxi - medical treatment given immediately after potential exposure to a rabid animal.
	▲	rob74 an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		To raise awareness?

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rob74 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Any direct human contact with a bat is an indication for rabies postexposure prophylaxi - medical treatment given immediately after potential exposure to a rabid animal.

This phrase is unnecessarily complicated, I expect something easier to understand from the BBC. It can't be stressed often enough: if there's even the slightest suspicion that someone has been bitten, scratched etc. by any wild animal or even "just" a feral cat/dog, get them a rabies vaccine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies_vaccine) immediately. Maybe the term "prophylaxi" (shouldn't it be prophylaxis?) is preferred nowadays because of the unnecessary controversies over vaccines, but I won't mince words here...

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an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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tuwtuwtuwtuw an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Horrific. Poor family.

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Haven880 19 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Now I will always ask AI what to do. This incident likely preventable with basic query asking chatgpt.

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raverbashing an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

> Any direct human contact with a bat is an indication for rabies postexposure prophylaxi - medical treatment given immediately after potential exposure to a rabid animal.

Yes, this is the correct take here

This is one of those things that will kill you and it will hurt the whole time you're dying

Though on the good side it does away with antivaxxers pretty quickly

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WesolyKubeczek an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Unfortunately, antivaxxers mostly go unharmed while their children suffer.

	▲	dinkblam an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> while their children suffer and (if there are too many of them) the rest of society

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jongjong an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm not an antivaxxer but a vax-minimalist.

Whether I get a vaccine or not depends on the vibes it gives off...

I didn't get COVID shot because I felt pressured into it and I was like; "You calling me a super-spreader? Girl! I'm gonna show you super-spreader!"

But seriously though, nobody tells me what to do! Nobody's the boss of me.

If anyone asked about my COVID vaccination status, I said yes, twice vaccinated.

Vaccines are like democracy, one person doesn't make a difference... And that person is me! The sheep will be sheep. They can take all the risk; they slow the spread, they take the side effects, they get to feel good about themselves... I just reap all the benefits, none of the risk... They're NPC, I'm the main character... That's the way it is. Also, I get to feel really good about myself... It's a win-win.