Canadian boy dies of rabies after waking to find bat on his face
✓Doctors in Canada say a child who awoke to find a bat resting on his nose and mouth while visiting an Ontario cottage later died of rabies, in an “exceedingly rare case” that highlights the need for better public awareness.
In a report published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, infectious disease physicians confirmed that the 11-year-old boy died from rabies, a fatality they said probably could have been prevented with greater awareness of how the virus is transmitted.
The child was in northern Ontario with his family in 2024 when he woke up and found a bat on his face. He swatted it away and his father quickly caught it in a pot and released it outside.
The parents did not see any scratches or bites on their son’s face or think the bat had been behaving oddly. As a result, they did not consider the possibility that their son had been infected by rabies, or take him to a doctor at that time.
Rabies is “exceedingly rare” in Canada, the doctors wrote, with only 28 documented case since 1924 and the last confirmed case in Ontario dating back to 1967.
Experts wrote that while rabid bats may show unusual behaviour – such as appearing during the daytime, resting on the ground, having difficulty flying or being easily approached, “the absence of these behaviours does not exclude rabies”.
They noted that although skunks, raccoons and foxes carry rabies in North America, the primary animal is bats. Bites and scratches are often so small they are “easily overlooked”. The virus can also enter humans through bat saliva coming into contact with cuts, the eyes, nose or mouth.
Nineteen days after his encounter with the bat, the boy developed tingling, numbness and swelling on the right side of his face. He was initially discharged with a presumed diagnosis of herpes gingivostomatitis but the bat exposure led the doctor to ask the local public health authority if anti-rabies medication should be given.
By the next morning his conditions had worsened and he was admitted to intensive care with staff “strongly suspect[ing] rabies”. An MRI found lesions on the brain stem and tests indicated rabies.
While the team considered administering rabies antibodies straight into the boy’s brain, the “invasive nature and lack of established efficacy” of the procedure led the family and medical team not to pursue further treatment.
The rabies virus typically has a relatively long incubation period before symptoms start to show, but once they do there is no treatment or cure and it is usually fatal.
If physicians suspect someone has been bitten or scratched by a bat, rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) – a series of treatments given after someone may have been exposed – is administered as quickly as possible and is “nearly always effective”, the paper says, citing overwhelming success in 29m cases.
“Early recognition of exposure and timely PEP remain the only effective means of rabies prevention.”
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · BBC ↗
An 11-year-old boy from Ontario died of rabies following an encounter with a bat that landed on his face during a family cottage visit in 2024. The parents observed no visible scratches or bites and did not initially suspect rabies exposure. Nineteen days later, the boy developed facial symptoms and was eventually diagnosed with rabies after brain imaging and testing. Medical teams considered but did not pursue an experimental brain-directed antibody treatment due to its invasive nature and unproven effectiveness. Canadian infectious disease physicians documented the case in a medical journal, noting that rabies is rare in Canada—28 cases since 1924—and that rabies post-exposure prophylaxis, when given promptly after suspected exposure, succeeds in nearly all cases. The physicians emphasised that bat bites and scratches are often microscopic and easily overlooked, and that rabid bats may not display obvious signs of illness.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · BBC ↗
Doctors in Canada say a child who awoke to find a bat resting on his nose and mouth while visiting an Ontario cottage later died of rabies, in an “exceedingly rare case” that highlights the need for better public awareness.
In a report published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, infectious disease physicians confirmed that the 11-year-old boy died from rabies, a fatality they said probably could have been prevented with greater awareness of how the virus is transmitted.
The child was in northern Ontario with his family in 2024 when he woke up and found a bat on his face. He swatted it away and his father quickly caught it in a pot and released it outside.
The parents did not see any scratches or bites on their son’s face or think the bat had been behaving oddly. As a result, they did not consider the possibility that their son had been infected by rabies, or take him to a doctor at that time.
Rabies is “exceedingly rare” in Canada, the doctors wrote, with only 28 documented case since 1924 and the last confirmed case in Ontario dating back to 1967.
Experts wrote that while rabid bats may show unusual behaviour – such as appearing during the daytime, resting on the ground, having difficulty flying or being easily approached, “the absence of these behaviours does not exclude rabies”.
They noted that although skunks, raccoons and foxes carry rabies in North America, the primary animal is bats. Bites and scratches are often so small they are “easily overlooked”. The virus can also enter humans through bat saliva coming into contact with cuts, the eyes, nose or mouth.
Nineteen days after his encounter with the bat, the boy developed tingling, numbness and swelling on the right side of his face. He was initially discharged with a presumed diagnosis of herpes gingivostomatitis but the bat exposure led the doctor to ask the local public health authority if anti-rabies medication should be given.
By the next morning his conditions had worsened and he was admitted to intensive care with staff “strongly suspect[ing] rabies”. An MRI found lesions on the brain stem and tests indicated rabies.
While the team considered administering rabies antibodies straight into the boy’s brain, the “invasive nature and lack of established efficacy” of the procedure led the family and medical team not to pursue further treatment.
The rabies virus typically has a relatively long incubation period before symptoms start to show, but once they do there is no treatment or cure and it is usually fatal.
If physicians suspect someone has been bitten or scratched by a bat, rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) – a series of treatments given after someone may have been exposed – is administered as quickly as possible and is “nearly always effective”, the paper says, citing overwhelming success in 29m cases.
“Early recognition of exposure and timely PEP remain the only effective means of rabies prevention.”
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · BBC ↗
An 11-year-old boy from Ontario died of rabies after a bat landed on his face while sleeping at a cottage in 2024. The parents did not observe visible scratches or bites on the child's face. The parents did not seek medical attention immediately after the bat encounter. Symptoms appeared 19 days after exposure. The boy was initially diagnosed with herpes gingivostomatitis before rabies was suspected. MRI imaging revealed lesions on the brain stem and tests confirmed rabies. Rabies post-exposure prophylaxis is nearly always effective when administered promptly after exposure. Canada has recorded 28 rabies cases since 1924, making the disease exceedingly rare there. The last confirmed rabies case in Ontario prior to this was in 1967. Bat bites and scratches are often so small they are easily overlooked. The virus can enter humans through bat saliva contacting cuts, eyes, nose, or mouth. Once rabies symptoms appear, the disease is usually fatal and there is no treatment or cure. This case highlights the need for better public awareness about rabies transmission. Early recognition of exposure and timely post-exposure prophylaxis remain the only effective means of rabies prevention.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗ · BBC ↗
- An 11-year-old boy in Ontario died of rabies after a bat landed on his face while he slept at a cottage in 2024
- The parents saw no visible bites or scratches and did not seek medical attention immediately
- Symptoms appeared 19 days later; by the time rabies was suspected, treatment options were limited
- Rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) given promptly after exposure is nearly always effective
- The case highlights that bat bites and scratches can be microscopic and easily missed, and rabid bats may show no obvious signs of illness