RABIES!!!!! PLEASE READ THIS POST!!!!

[Ponygirl]

You may have heard about this on TV or read it on the internet, but my friend at work's SON is in Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas with RABIES.... the boy is 16 years old and is fighting for his life, but it does not look good for him......he will probably not make it through the day. A special medicine has been flown in from Switzerland and he has been treated with it, but it is not working.....

5 weeks ago, "Z" was awakened by a BAT that was flying in his room while he was sleeping and the bat "brushed" up against his face.....he did not think that he had been bitten, but with the help of a neighbor, they threw a towel on the bat and got it back outside. Nobody thought he had gotten bitten, so life went on like normal. He was OK for about 3 weeks and then the boy started getting to not feeling well and each day, he felt worse and worse. He started to have panic attacks and confusion and vomiting.....to make a long story short, he was taken to the hospital last Friday where tests were taken for possible St. Louis EncEphalitis.....more tests were taken and sent to CDC in Atlanta, Ga. The tests came back positive for RABIES. There is NO CURE FOR RABIES once a human exhibits the symptoms. In a rare case in Wisconsin, a doctor was able to develop a serum that saved a young girl 2 years ago, and this same doctor was in contact with Texas Children's doctors. This is the same serum that was flown in from Switzerland for "Z", but did not work on the boy. He is in a medical induced coma and his body has started to shut down.

 


PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE...!!! If anybody ever has a bat flying in their house, whether you think it has bitten you or not, get medical treatment right away. Doctors can give you a shot immediately that will save your life or that of a loved one..do not take any chances.....Bats are nocturnal animals....IF THEY FLY IN THE DAYTIME, THEY ARE MOST LIKELY RABID!!!! STAY AWAY FROM THEM...!!! YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE BITTEN TO CONTRACT RABIES!! THEY ONLY HAVE TO TOUCH YOU...If they fly into your house, they could be rabid. It is not normal behavior for a bat to fly into a home. There are many articles on the internet about Rabies, and now might just be a good time for everyone reading this to become more informed about this horrible disease......

 


Please pray for this family as they go through this tragic, tough time. "Z" is their only child.

 

[Mona]

OMG, NO! That is terrible! I hope and pray for a miracle for that young man and his family. That is so sad.

 

[strass]

I've been watching the local news here in Houston for updates. Been thinking about that young man all day. This could easily have been my son.

: Still hoping to hear good news.

:

 

[Carol Z]

There was a girl here, in Fond dul Lac, WI who was bitten by a bat and got rabies. The docs used an experimental treatment on her and she has recovered wonderfully. No one expected her to live, she was so terribly ill.

In todays Fond du Lac paper there is an article saying that the young man in Texas will be treated using the same treatment that saved Jeanna. I hope it works as well for him.

 

[Rachel K]

Oh my gosh! That is absolutely horrible! That poor family. They will be in my thoughts. A miracle is needed to save that boy.

Last year my parents and my baby sister had to go through the rabie shots because my dad had awoken to a bat crawling on him during the night. It very well could of just gotten hit by the ceiling fan but they didn't want to take any chances. My dad stupidly threw the body out, by the time we considered that it might of been rabid, and found the body, it was already decayed and there wasn't enough left of it to test for rabies. So we never knew for sure but they got the shots anyway.

 

[wildoak]

Have seen this on the news, sure will say a prayer for him. Our county and several around us have issued warnings recently to be sure all vulnerable pets etc be vaccinated, as there has been an increase already this year in wildlife with rabies.

Jan

 

[nootka]

I read that he didn't make it.

This is so awful.

My thoughts go to Zach and his family.

Liz M.

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

Wow that is just awful I wasnt aware that you could get it just from touching an animal who had it I thought you had to get bit. Thanks for the info however i am so very sorry for this boy and his family I cant even imagine.

 

[Minimor]

I haven't been watching the news at all in awhile and this rabies case didn't make the local radio news, at least not on the brief clips that I've heard in the truck on my way to/from work, so this is the first I've heard of it.

What a shame that this boy had to lose his life to something that could have been warded off, if only he'd known & got the shots. If only, if only. That's amazing, too, about the girl in Wisconsin that was treated & recovered from rabies. I wonder if she was just a very exceptional case, or if time will perfect this treatment and someday the majority of vicims can be saved?

I don't know if I'd have thought about catching rabies from such a brief contact or not, even knowing that it doesn't take an actual bite to spread the disease. When I was in high school yet several of my class mates had to take the series of shots because of one infected puppy. The puppy had the dumb form of rabies, so it didn't bite anyone, but anyone who touched it in the last days of its life had to have the shots. My friend worked at the vet clinic where the puppy was treated--I remember her coming back from the doctor with circles drawn around every tiny scratch she had on her hands, arms & face--the doctor circled every break in the skin to see how many places she could have been infected by contact with the puppy's saliva. From there he assessed the degree of risk to her and decided which course of shots she would need. She was declared to be high risk & so got the more potent set of shots--hip, arm & 2 in the stomach. Another girl in my class, who was part of the family exposed to the puppy at the onset of symptoms was considered to be more low risk, and she had to have the 21 shots in the stomach. I assume it was the cost factor--the series of shots in the stomach must have been cheaper than the "high risk" series my friend got? She got only 6 or 7 shots in all & she said the 2 she got in the abdomen were by far the worst to take.