Minnesota man, 84, dies from RABIES six months after he was woken by bat nibbling on his wrist
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: US health officials have revealed that a man in Minnesota, who discovered a rabid bat biting his wrist when he woke up last year died from rabies six months later. The unidentified 84-year-old batted the bat away and hastily cleansed his hands with soap before going back to bed with his wife.
Although the pair received a round of 'timely' rabies vaccines and antibody injections as part of post-exposure prophylaxis treatment for rabies. But, five months later, the patient went back to the hospital claiming to be in excruciating pain on the right side of his face and to be tearing excessively, he died fifteen days later.
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First case of Rabbies patient dying in US despite timely treamtnet
According to a recent study published in the journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases, he suffered from significant brain and spinal cord swelling. Medical professional also noted that this was the first known instance of a rabies patient in the US dying despite undergoing 'timely and appropriate' preventive treatment, the Daily Mail reported. The paper summarizes "the first reported failure of rabies [treatment] in the western hemisphere," according to Dr Stacy Holzbauer, an epidemiology at the CDC.
Patients' immune system weren't functioning properly
They hypothesized that the therapies weren't successful because the patients' immune systems weren't functioning properly, which rendered the vaccines less effective. The man was bitten on July 27, 2020, and the silver-haired bat tested positve for rabbies on July 30 at Minnesota Department of Health prompting PEP for both husband and wife. But the man didn't get sick until January of the following year. He had a number of underlying illnesses, such as enlarged prostate, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, kidney issues, and coronary heart disease, the paper mentions.
It further details, he was given three doses of the rabies vaccine and a rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) medication during his initial visit to the hospital. Before being admitted, the man visited the hospital three times, each time complaining of a sharp ache on the right side of his face and tearing in that eye. Yet by this point, the facial discomfort had gotten worse, and he had also begun to have night sweats, redness in his right eye, facial paralysis, and pain in his left ear. The individual had encephalitis, or a swelling of the brain and spinal cord, as determined by further swabs. He also developed a 103.1-degree temperature.
Although the individual was intubated by medical personnel to support his breathing, therapy was ultimately discontinued. After 15 days of symptoms, he passed away. Tests showed that he had rabies, the same kind as the bat that attacked his hand had.
How is Rabies spread?
Unless patients are given drugs before symptoms appear, rabies is almost invariably fatal. It is brought on by a virus that preys on the neurological system, causing inflammation to spread to the brain and spinal cord. It has an incubation period of 20 to 60 days and is fatal in 100% of cases if left untreated. Only infected animals can transmit it to people; this happens most frequently when the animal bites or scratches the victim. Moreover, it can be transmitted when an animal's saliva comes into touch with a skin wound or graze on a human. Being bitten by an infected dog causes the majority of rabies cases.
High fever, numbness where the bite was, and hallucinations are some of the signs of the sickness. Some of the afflicted also have hydrophobia, or a dread of water. Around 95% of rabies occurrences occur in Africa and Asia, with an estimated 55,000 cases happening globally each year. India accounts for half of all instances of rabies.
