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California teacher dies after being bitten by a bat inside her classroom
A central California teacher died last month after she was bitten by a bat that presumably had rabies inside her classroom, officials and a friend of the woman, marking the third such fatality in North America in recent weeks.
In the wake of Leah Seneng’s death on Nov. 22, public health officials are warning the public about the dangers of bats, which are the most common source of human rabies in the U.S. Even though fewer than 10 people in the country die from rabies each year, it is almost always fatal if not treated quickly.
Seneng, 60, found a bat in her classroom in mid-October, her friend Laura Splotch told KFSN-TV. She tried to scoop it up and take it outside but it bit her, Splotch said.
Seneng did not immediately have symptoms of rabies but she fell ill weeks later and was taken to the hospital, where she was put into a medically-induced coma and died days later, Splotch told the TV station.
“It’s devastating to see her in that state, with all the machines hooked up and everything, it was pretty upsetting and scary,” Splotch told KFSN.
According to her Facebook profile, Seneng was an art teacher at Bryant Middle School in Dos Palos, California. The Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint Unified School District, called Seneng “a dedicated and compassionate educator.”
“We were shocked to learn that Leah’s passing was related to contracting rabies, most likely from being bitten by a bat and we are cooperating with the Merced County Department of Public Health on their investigation,” the school district said in a statement. “We live and work in a community known to have bats and other wildlife around school grounds, and we will continue to help educate our community regarding the dangers associated with coming into direct contact with any wild animal, including bats.”
Merced County confirmed the rabies exposure but, due to privacy laws, did not release the deceased’s name. The California Department of Public Health confirmed that the victim died after contracting rabies.
“Bites from bats can be incredibly small and difficult to see or to detect. It is important to wash your hands and look for any open wounds after touching a wild animal, and to seek immediate medical care if bitten,” CDPH Director Dr. Tomás J. Aragón said in a statement. “It is always safest to leave wild animals alone. Do not approach, touch, or try to feed any animals that you don’t know.”
At least two other people in North America have died of rabies after encountering a bat in recent weeks. Last month, health officials in Canada announced that a child died from rabies after being exposed to a bat in their room. About a week before that, officials announced a U.S. citizen died from rabies after being exposed to a bat in western Minnesota in July.
How is rabies spread and what are the symptoms?
Rabies is a deadly viral infection that attacks the nervous system in humans and animals, causing brain and spinal cord inflammation. It is typically spread to humans through direct contact with the saliva of an infected animal through scratching or biting.
Rabies is commonly found in bats, raccoons, foxes, skunks and some household pets. Without proper and prompt treatment after symptoms appear, rabies is nearly 100 percent fatal in both animals and humans, according to Haldimand and Norfolk Health Services, where the child was admitted.
Treatment has proven to be nearly 100% effective at preventing the disease if someone is exposed, though it must start before symptoms appear.
Bats pose a unique risk because their scratches can be hard to notice due to their small teeth, and bats cannot be vaccinated through provincial programs, health officials said.
If bitten by an animal suspected of carrying the virus, health officials advise washing the wound thoroughly with soap and water for 15 minutes and immediately seeking medical attention.
According to the CDC, the incubation period of rabies may last from weeks to months, depending on the location of exposure, severity of exposure and age.
“The first symptoms of rabies, called prodrome, maybe like the flu, including weakness, discomfort, fever, or headache. There also may be discomfort, prickling, or an itching sensation at the site of the bite. These symptoms may last for several days,” the CDC says.
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U.S. sets Thanksgiving record for whooping cough cases
At least 364 pertussis infections were reported to health authorities last week, according to figures published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marking the worst Thanksgiving week for whooping cough in recent decades.
This tops the previous Thanksgiving record of 228 cases of pertussis which were reported for the week ending Nov. 27, 2010. That year there were 27,550 cases reported by the end of 2010, below the 28,167 already tallied so far this year.
Thanksgiving usually sees a slowdown in cases reported across most diseases, because of delays in testing and reporting around the holiday as well as changes in people going to the doctor.
But this year’s whooping cough wave is continuing to accelerate in several states this week, including in Ohio, which reported 84 cases. That is the most of any state, and more than the 67 pertussis cases that Ohio reported in the week before.
“Pertussis can be cyclical. After seeing lower numbers of reported cases in the past few years — during and after the COVID-19 pandemic — nationally, pertussis is now returning to pre-pandemic trends. Ohio is no different,” a spokesperson for Ohio’s health department said in a statement.
The Ohio spokesperson said this year’s increase remained “consistent with some years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” and has yet to top the total number of cases reported in 2013.
While total cases nationwide remain lower than some previous records, the pace of weekly reported cases reached 577 ahead of Thanksgiving — more than 10 times the same time last year, and the worst in at least a decade.
Health officials have cited a variety of factors for this year’s wave of whooping cough cases, including gaps in immunity from vaccination or prior infection and the switch to safer but less effective vaccines in the 1990s.
“We have to acknowledge that our vaccination rates, in Montgomery County for school-age children, are low. They’ve decreased since the pandemic, and they’re lower than the state of Ohio, and lower than the United States as well,” said Dr. Becky Thomas, medical director of the health department for Ohio’s Montgomery County.
Within Ohio, Montgomery County makes up the largest share of cases reported in recent months, despite not having the most people in the state.
Around 63% of their cases have been in schoolchildren and 12% are in daycares, Thomas said. The department often finds out about outbreaks first from school nurses, warning of large numbers of kids calling out sick with whooping cough.
Thomas said doctors have been seeing high pertussis case counts for months, larger than the wave they saw last year.
“We had an increase in cases last fall, but nothing compared to this fall. And when we first started noticing a really significant increase was about the time that kids went back to school, so about the middle of August,” said Thomas.
Thomas said that the vast majority of reported cases in the county have said they were vaccinated for pertussis, though it is unclear if everyone was up-to-date on the shots. A third of cases have been in teens, who are recommended to have gotten a booster dose by age 12.
“We have specific data on vaccination records for entering seventh graders that shows those vaccination rates for that tetanus, whooping cough vaccine that they should have entering school are decreased,” said Thomas.
This year’s whooping cough surge also comes as health departments are bracing for the return of an expected wave of COVID-19 and flu infections this winter.
“Whooping cough isn’t the only respiratory illness that we’re concerned about. So we’re encouraging people to stay home when they’re sick, practice good hand hygiene, get their health care provider if they need to if they’re symptoms are worsening or severe, and of course get vaccinated,” said Jennifer Wentzel, the county health department’s commissioner.
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