TORONTO – Contact with bats can be deadly. That’s the warning issued by physicians who authored a study published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (here), focusing on the case of an 11-year-old boy who died of rabies nearly two years ago.
Let us revisit the case. In the summer of 2024, the child was staying at a cottage in northern Ontario when he woke up to find a bat resting on his nose and mouth. He brushed it away with his hand, and his father managed to capture the animal before releasing it outside. Because the parents did not notice any scratches or bite marks on their son’s face, and the bat did not appear to be behaving abnormally, they did not suspect rabies exposure and did not seek medical attention.
Nearly three weeks later, however, the boy began experiencing tingling, numbness, and swelling on the right side of his face. A physician at an urgent care clinic initially diagnosed a temporary facial paralysis that can be caused by viral infections and prescribed antiviral treatment.
A few days later, the child was admitted to the emergency department at McMaster Children’s Hospital after developing vomiting and pain while swallowing. His condition then worsened, with increased weakness on the right side of his face and difficulty speaking. He was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit, where his neurological condition continued to deteriorate. By the fifth day of hospitalization, he had no brainstem reflexes—the part of the brain that controls breathing, heart rate, and other vital functions. Life support was eventually withdrawn, and, according to the report, the child “died peacefully with his family at his bedside.” A tragedy that is difficult to comprehend, but one that must prompt reflection.
“It was important to us and to the family to take the opportunity to find learning experiences and lessons that we could take from his case to try and help spread awareness and understanding of rabies infection and risks,” said Dr. Brian Hummel (source: CTV News / The Canadian Press), senior author of the clinical report and a pediatric infectious disease specialist at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton.
The physician explains that once rabies symptoms appear, there is no effective treatment. However, the virus has a relatively long incubation period, typically lasting several weeks before symptoms develop. This window allows the infection to be prevented through post-exposure prophylaxis, consisting of a series of rabies vaccinations combined with an injection of immunoglobulins.
“If you get symptomatic rabies infection, it is near universally fatal. But if you get the prevention before symptoms develop, it is near universally successful,” Hummel said (source: CTV News / The Canadian Press).
He therefore urges people to contact a doctor “whenever a bat (as well as skunks, raccoons, and foxes) comes into contact with human skin,” even in the absence of visible bites or scratches, because bat saliva can enter the body through small wounds or through the eyes, nose, or mouth.
Rabies in humans is an extremely rare infection in Canada: only 28 cases have been recorded since 1924. Before the death of the 11-year-old boy in the summer of 2024, the most recent case occurred in 2019, when a man in British Columbia died after being exposed to a bat. In Ontario, no human rabies cases had been recorded since 1967.
Photo by James Wainscoat on Unsplash
