Anyone who encounters a bat where it shouldn't be — or when it shouldn't be, meaning daylight — should contact animal control immediately.
That's the warning issued Thursday by the Logan Police Department and the Bear River Health Department. Though the warning targets residents in northern Utah, it applies to other parts of the state, too.
Six bats have already tested positive for rabies, three of them in the Cache County area. While the number doesn't seem alarming, Bear River Health spokesman Mike Weibel points out that the only time a bat is tested for rabies is if there's been some kind of human contact.
"There are two different kinds of people," said Weibel. "Those who run away and those who go pick it up. Those are the ones I want to get the message to. A number of bats have been testing positive for rabies, so if you see one flopping around where it shouldn't be — a bat in the living area is unusual — you should stay away. If a bat is in an unusual area, it's sick. Call animal control."
Rabies is an infectious viral disease that affects the nervous system of humans and mammals and, left untreated, nearly always kills. A few people die in the United States each year because they did not seek medical advice. Tens of thousands are successfully treated each year, with an expensive (about $700) course of six shots in the arm, as close to the wound as possible.
You don't have to be bitten by a bat to contract rabies. If saliva, brain tissue or spinal fluid from a rabid animal gets in a wound, the eyes or the mouth, you can get rabies. "It's not farfetched," Weibel said, adding that just cleaning up a dead bat can lead to exposure. And house pets can get the disease and transmit it to humans, so it's especially important that animals have their vaccinations.
Petting a rabid animal is not considered an exposure.
The other rabid bats were found in Davis, Weber and Uintah counties. And at least seven bats have tested positive for rabies in southeastern Idaho, including one in Franklin County that reportedly bit a 6-year-old child.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says only a laboratory test can confirm rabies. But any bat that is active during the day, is found where bats aren't usually seen, like in the kitchen or on the lawn, or can't fly is much more likely to be rabid. They are the most dangerous and also the easiest bats to approach, compounding the problem.
Sgt. Jeff Curtis, spokesman for the Logan police, said officials are collecting about three or four bats each week that appear to be ill, though they aren't tested unless they have come in contact with people or house pets. Two of the bats that tested positive in Logan had been gnawed on by pet cats.
Cats and dogs can spread rabies for up to 10 days before they become ill, as well as during their illness, according to the CDC.
If you are, by chance, bitten by a bat you think might be rabid, clean the wound well with soap and water, then get medical help immediately.
E-MAIL: lois@desnews.com