After nearly four decades, Rabies in Spain

According to news reports, a pit bull that attacked several children last week tested positive for rabies, the first confirmed case since 1975.

The dog bit three children, aged two, six and twelve, as well as a 17-year old male in the village of Arges, near Toledo, early this month. It was immediately destroyed and was confirmed to have been rabid following tests on Monday. All were discharged after being given rabies innoculations, apart from the two-year-old who was kept in hospital after being bitten in the face.

Maryland Rabies Death from Organ Donation

The news is just out this morning that the source of rabies in the Maryland man struck down by the disease was a kidney transplant in 2011.  Information is still scant but the AP reports

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a rabies death in Maryland was caused by an organ transplant.
The agency said Friday that three other people in Florida, Georgia and Illinois who got organs from the same donor are getting anti-rabies shots.
The donor died of rabies in Florida in 2011 after moving there from North Carolina.
The CDC says it's working with public health officials and health care facilities in all five states to identify people who were in close contact with the initial donor or the four organ recipients. The agency says those people might need rabies post-exposure treatment.

The Washington Post quoted unnamed sources offering more details.  

The recipient died at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington after being in the hospital for about a month, according to the people with knowledge of the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He had received a kidney from a Florida man in an operation at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in 2011.

Marylander dies from rabies

Details are still sketchy but a Maryland resident recently died of rabies.  We do not yet know when the death occurred or where, whether it was a man or woman, adult or child.  Full story here.

Rabid Bobcat attacks Mass. Man

If you are attacked by a bobcat in your garage, the cat most likely has rabies.  According to news reports, a man in western Massachusetts was attacked by a bobcat in his garage:

Roger Mundell Jr. went into the garage in Brookfield on Sunday morning to fetch some tie-down straps for a friend when the animal attacked.
It then ran out of the garage and bit Mundell's 15-year-old nephew on the arms and back.
Mundell and his wife pinned the cat to the ground and shot it dead.
Mundell, his nephew and his wife, are being treated for rabies. His wife wasn't bitten, but got the animal's blood on her.
State Environmental Police took the bobcat to have it tested for rabies, which they think is likely given its unusual behavior.

Bobcats are usually shy and solitary creatures; they are listed as a game animal in the state.

Live rabies in a Texas family dog

When a family from Titus County, TX brought their aggressive, disoriented dog to the animal clinic, veterinarians immediately diagnosed rabies and euthanized the pet.   According to the Daily Tribune,

Both Drs. Katy Dunn and Ronnie Robertson, who operates Robertson-Dunn Veterinary Services on Industrial Street, said they can’t recall the last time they saw a dog with active rabies.  The dog was euthanized Monday, along with the other three family dogs who had been exposed, and the members of the family now must have post-exposure rabies vaccinations, said Dr. Robertson. 

Once active, rabies is always fatal, said Dunn, “you die a slow, painful death."

5 children die of rabies in Ghana

This is a truly awful story in this day and age.  Rabies is fatal but treatment is possible when grownups and civic leaders take responsibility for understanding the danger.  But apparently five children in Ghana, bitten by rabid dogs between April and October, have died.  Such deaths are unnecessary.

http://www.allghananews.com/general-news/6322-five-children-die-from-rabies-infection-in-koforidua#

Rabid Beaver Attacks Elderly Swimmer in Fairfax, VA

According to Washington, DC news stories in t, an 83 year old woman was attacked by a rabid beaver while swimming in Fairfax, VA.

In a horror movie, a shark or an oversized barracuda might attack an unsuspecting swimmer, but in Fairfax County it was a 35-pound rabid beaver that drove an 83-year-old woman out of the water screaming.
The woman was swimming early Tuesday evening in Lake Barcroft, a 135-acre private lake in a neighborhood near Bailey’s Crossroads, when a rabid beaver attacked, latching on to her and biting her several times.

This was the second attack this year.  Two girls were attacked in July.  The woman was brought to a nearby hospital and administered treatment for rabies.

The Post reports:

During the struggle, the beaver took a bite out of her left calf, nearly bit off her thumb, and left puncture wounds all over her arms and legs....it wouldn’t stop.

Rabies is more common in the summer.