China jails 8 for selling fake rabies vaccine after boy dies

This is a big story not just because of the awfulness of selling fake rabies vaccine (which led to the death of a five year old boy) but because China is again taking a hard stand on face pharmaceuticals.

The eight will face up to two and a half years in prison.

They sold over 530 fake injections; the little boy had had six, and would not have died had they been properly formulated. The fake vaccine was apparently mostly water.

The eight defendants also paid the equivalent of $24K to the boy's family.

Awful. But yay to the Chinese government on this one.

Rabid Bat Warning in Los Angeles

21 rabid bats have been found in the L.A. region this year so far.

This is apparently twice the number typically found in the area, which means that about 10 rabid bats are identified annually.

Local officials are warning residents to avoid touching ANY wild animals.

"Make sure that children know to leave bats and other wildlife alone and keep pets away from wild animals," the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a statement. "If you see a sick bat or other sick animal, contact your local animal control agency."

Rabies under the elms

Rabid Coyote in Rye Brook, Connecticut

The news is a few months old but I was alerted to this story of a rabid coyote in Westchester County who lunged at 2-year-old girl, bit her father, and scratched a teenage boy one Sunday in September. Aggressiveness in animals is always a bad sign. Luckily all three individuals are getting treatment against rabies.

Posted Without Comment: Zombie Rabies

Though dead humans can't come back to life, certain viruses can induce such aggressive, zombie-like behavior, scientists say in the new National Geographic Channel documentary The Truth Behind Zombies

From National Geographic News

An airborne rabies virus would be the most Awful of Awful Rabies Stories.

Living with animals, living with rabies

Obviously I'm more concerned about rabies than most people (thus this blog) but of all the news stories about living with wild animals, only a few actually mention rabies.

Central Park Animals: Beware of Rabies!

This excellent story states:

I hope you are paying attention. This isn't just another dog walker story. There is real and not imagined potential that you and/or your dog may encounter a rabid raccoon in one of our parks. It is imperative that you make sure your dogs rabies vaccinations are current--especially if you continue to take the risk of leaving your dogs walking around off leash while you pay no attention to where they are and what they're doing. And please don't let those dad-blasted retractable leads give you a false sense of security. If you aren't keeping your dog at your side, you're taking a risk.

So pay attention, city dwellers!

Forsyth County, NC (20 animals tested positive this year)

Duval County (Jacksonville), Florida (seventh alert this year, the last one for a cat)

Garret County, Maryland (four skunks tested positive this year)

Good discussion on WYPR about wildlife (but alas, no rabies discussion)

In Vietnam, Rabies on the Rise from Dog Diet

According to news reports, rabies is on the rise in Vietnam because of the number of stray dogs and the tendency of villagers to eat dog meat.

According to the New York Times story:

In parts of Vietnam, according to the national government, only one dog out of 25 is vaccinated, and there is a regular cross-country trade in dogs for the table. (Raising dogs for meat is popular in many countries, especially in southeast Asia and West Africa.)

A study in the journal PLoS Medicine last year described the deaths of two rabies patients in Vietnamese hospitals. Neither had been bitten, but one had cut up and cooked a dog killed in a traffic accident, while the other had eaten a sick cat.

Last year, according to Science Daily,

In Asia, it is believed that eating dog meat enhances health and longevity. It is eaten throughout the year in the second half of the lunar month, particularly in the winter months, when it is believed to increase body heat.

In Viet Nam, dogs with rabies have been detected in dog slaughterhouses and workers at dog slaughterhouses are vaccinated against rabies as part of the national programme for rabies control and prevention. However, the private slaughter of dogs is relatively common in the country.

"We need to alert both the general public and clinicians about the risks around butchering and handling meat," says Dr Wertheim. "People should not handle animals that may be infected with rabies. Rabies can be prevented with a vaccine and people exposed to rabies can be helped with post-exposure prophylaxis, but this needs to be administered as quickly as possible following the exposure. Once a person shows symptoms, the disease is almost invariably fatal.

"Vietnamese doctors already consider dog slaughtering to be a risk factor for rabies transmission, but it is important that other health care workers and policy makers, both in- and outside Vietnam, are aware of this risk factor."

Rabid Bats Kill at least 5 Children in Peru

This is a TRULY awful rabies story that happened this week. At least five children have been killed but the total deaths from this outbreak has been 20 villagers in a region 600 miles north of Lima, near the border with Ecuador, over the past several months. Full totals are difficult because families often do not allow autopsies.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com

Communities in this part of the remote jungle are often affected by outbreaks of attack by blood-sucking bats, reports Peru's La Jornada. This outbreak of rabies has been confirmed by the capture of several bats infected by rabies, they reported earlier today.

Rabies is a viral disease that causes inflammation of the brain in warm-blooded animals. It is usually fatal in unvaccinated people unless treated straight away. The virus is usually transmitted via bites from infected animals.

A local health official told the press that about 3,500 people have been bitten by vampire bats in the two communities so far this year.

He said this number was likely to rise because of the difficulties and the cost of trying to get vaccines to these remote areas.

Fernando Borjas, a doctor in the regional health directorate, said the outbreak started several months ago, and that it can take up to 15 hours by river to reach the remote jungle communities, by which time it is often too late to vaccinate people.

According to the UK's Daily Telegraph, Borjas said "we cannot get them the vaccines quickly enough because the communities are so remote".

He said the bats feed at night, and when they don't find large animals to feed on, they bite unprotected people.

Some reports suggest the bats are turning to humans for food because their rainforest habitats are disappearing; there are also reports that the local people say the temperatures in recent years have been unusually low in the Amazon region and that could also be a reason.

Borjas said Peru's health ministry have been sending emergency teams to the region and so far around 900 people have been immunized. But there are still thousands without vaccine, and some people have refused to be treated.

Other sources reported by Noticias24 suggest that some communities are also failing to protect themselves with mosquito nets, which are thought to be a simple way to stop the bats from biting.

Sources: Telegraph, BBC, La Jornada, Noticias24.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today

Rabid Calf fed by children in Maryland

Baltimore Sun story

From the Washington Post

As many as 150 people, including dozens of elementary school students, might have come in contact with a rabid calf at an Accokeek farm, and state and local health officials are urging anyone who visited the farm in the past month to call them for medical advice.

The incident could have deadly consequences. Anyone who demonstrates symptoms of rabies, including headaches and nervous system problems, is likely to die, said Donald Shell, the health officer for Prince George's County.

Because early treatment can be effective, officials were trying over the weekend to identify and contact everyone who visited the Hard Bargain Farm in Accokeek between Dec. 21 and Tuesday, when the infected calf was on display, he said.

Health officials said those who might have had contact with the calf include farmworkers, students from Berry Elementary School in Waldorf and Samuel Chase Elementary School in Temple Hills, and a tour group from the Student Conservation Association in Arlington County.

Rabies is not airborne and is generally not transmitted between people, Shell said. The virus could have been transferred from someone who touched the calf's saliva and then his or her mouth, and Hard Bargain Farm runs an overnight program that allows participants to touch and feed the animals.

Shell said that a farm manager noticed that the calf was sick Tuesday and isolated it. He said that officials think a rabid raccoon infected the calf sometime in the past month.

Anyone who might have been exposed to the calf, which was tan with tiny white spots, is asked to call the Prince George's Health Department at 240-508-5774 or the Charles County Health Department at 240-216-4055 or 240-299-2693.