In the months following the bite, the boy suffered a bevy of symptoms, including seizures and delusions, and was at one point misdiagnosed with shingles.
A child in Texas died late last year after being bitten by a bat in a rare human case of rabies, the CDC said Thursday. In a report on the case, one of just five such fatal human infections in 2021, the CDC said the 7-year-old boy was bitten in August after picking a bat up in his backyard. He told his parents, but the family did not immediately seek treatment “because there were no visible bite marks,” according to the report. Several weeks later, he began experiencing strange symptoms, including rashes and pains in his arms. Misdiagnosed with shingles, he worsened in the ensuing days, with symptoms like delusions, drooling, nausea, and vomiting. He was eventually hospitalized “for altered mental status, seizures, and hypersalivation” and finally diagnosed correctly. Despite attempting “aggressive intensive care” and an experimental vaccine, the boy died—22 days after his symptoms emerged. Rabies is invariably fatal once clinical signs begin to emerge, though survival rates are high if treatment is sought immediately after exposure.
