Bats are blamed for the deaths of two people from rabies last year in Kentucky and Montana though neither person remembered being bitten by one, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
Bats are responsible for more than half of the 32 rabies deaths in the United States since 1980, the CDC said Thursday.A 42-year-old woman from Cumberland County, Ky., died in October after being hospitalized a few days earlier for dizziness, shoulder pain and difficulty swallowing.
Two months later, a 49-year-old man from Missoula County, Mont., died after his fever and sore throat developed into a coma and seizures.
Both lived in rural areas and didn't remember being bitten by a bat, the CDC said, but the virus in both was linked to a silver-haired bat.