Reply #8: Easy for you to say, Don! [View All]

[DemoTex]

Ever had a bat wing brush your scalp while you were grilling chicken? I think any bat can be a rabies vector. However, I'm not worried. The CDC says that the number of reported human rabies cases averaged 1.5 a year from 1960 to 1965. That was down from an average of 24 a year in the 1940s. Almost all of those were were transmitted by dog bites.

The CDC website says: Confusion remains about potential exposures to rabies from bats... The diagnosis of rabies in two people who had no known history of a bite, but who worked extensively in caves inhabited by bats, received considerable attention in 1953 (1,2).... Although the aerosol route is considered a possible mechanism of RABV acquisition, few data support such transmission under typical field conditions.... A more plausible hypothesis is that many people may not be aware that a bat bite is a risk for rabies transmission and fail to report it.

Because of the potential contact with bats, cavers are considered at a higher risk for rabies exposure than the general population. Since the 1960s, the recommendation has been that the cavers receive rabies preexposure prophylaxis (PreEP) (5).

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol8no5/01-0290.htm

Lestat, Rummy, and caves. All to be avoided.