Posted on 08/24/2010 9:46:26 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said a Hispanic field worker died over the weekend of rabies.
The victim was initially taken to a hospital in New Roads and transferred to New Orleans, where he later died.
Lisa Faust with DHH confirmed the case is the first human death in Louisiana attributed to rabies in more than 60 years.
The department reported it has contacted the victim's co-workers and tested them.
Health officials are continuing to follow up on their treatment.
DHH added the man, who is unidentified at this time, contacted rabies in Mexico and brought it to the U.S.
Disease experts with the CDC report all mammals are susceptible to rabies, but only a few species are important as reservoirs for the disease.
In the U.S., distinct strains of rabies virus have been identified in raccoons, skunks, foxes and coyotes.
Several species of bats are also reservoirs for strains of the rabies virus.
Transmission of rabies virus usually begins when infected saliva of a host is passed to an uninfected animal.
The most common mode of rabies virus transmission is through the bite and virus-containing saliva of an infected host.
Click here for more information on rabies from DHH
Click here for more information on rabies from the CDC
They will probably blame it on BP.
Sounds like a job for Billy the Exterminator.
Importing the Third World, one eradicated disease at a time..
Just dying from diseases ordinary Americans won’t die from.
Rabies is far from eradicated in the United States.
Rabies is one horrible way to die.
Too bad this guy didn’t get help sooner, he would probably still be alive. There’s no cure, but if you get the vacine before symtoms show (about 10 days avg.) you have a 95% chance of surviving. The vacine today is much better than in the past, and they don’t have to be given in the stomach.
After the book Cujo (King) came out, I was interested in rabies and read what ever I could about it. A lot of it I didn’t understand, not having a medical background, but what I did understand was pretty nasty.
Usually starts with a thirst that’s hard to quench, then fear of water (hydophobia). Just looking at water dripping from a faucet can drive you crazy. Then fever, halucinations, fits, and stark raving mad as the virus eats your brain.
Yes, that was what I meant, it something we are prepared to deal with here, but have not had to in years..
True.
It’s estimated that 5% of all bats carry it. That’s one out of 20.
Fortunatley, the bats usually die before they can transmit the disease except for vampire bats which habitat Central and South America.
In the Northeast U.S. there is still an epidemic in racoons.
We don’t have many cases in humans in the U.S. thanks to rabies vacines for cats and dogs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10960389
It seems that of these 500 plus bites, somebody must be dying.
Animal Shelters are now importing dogs into the US from the Carribean and Mexico. These animals are occasionally infected with rabies. This has become a problem in the last few years. Animal shelters need to import animals because there IS NO STRAY DOG PROBLEM in the northeast US because most people spay or neuter their dogs. Therefore, to meet demand they have for “rescue” dogs they need to import them from out of the country or atleast out of state.
Years ago, we whacked a raccoon upside the head in the backyard because we couldn’t scare him off. We didn’t know if he’d been made into a semi-pet by deliberate feeding (always a bad idea) or if he actually had rabies, but with all the kids and real pets in the neighborhood, we weren’t willing to take the chance. He was definitely a Wrong Raccoon, and then he was a Late one. We scooped him into a trashbag with a shovel and called the county, but they weren’t interested.
Nah. It´s Bush´s fault.
RIP.
One of my neighbors was telling me last week he saw a bat flying around about 2 o’clock in the afternoon - not good.
If you see a racoon during the day it’s usually a bad sign, as they are generally nocturnal. Especially if it’s acting strange.
I’ve shot 2 raccoons in the past 10 years that were out during the day acting very strange. One trotted right past me as if I wasn’t even there. It just didn’t see me.
The local board of health didn’t want anything to do with them either, they said they had so many reports, they just consider them all infected.
Testing them is expensive, and they need to have the brain of the animal intact. The virus is detected by ultraviolet light since it is luminous, and settles in the brain.
Blowing a raccoon’s brain apart with a shot doesn’t help, which is what I did.
“The department reported it has contacted the victim’s co-workers and tested them.”
I didn’t think there was a test for rabies. I thought they gave rabies shots as a preventative in case of contact.
It's hard to get anything but a more-or-less pitbull from a shelter anyway - the 'breed rescue' groups run around scooping up all the dogs that appear to be their breed, so there's nothing left BUT pits.
I'm on one breed-rescue email list, and they occasionally send emails asking someone to go to a shelter and pretend to be a regular adopter, then hand the dog over to the breed rescue, because the shelter won't adopt to a group.
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