Your article alerting us to yet another rabid animal has prompted me to send a warning to your readers.
I lived in Kingwood, Texas for 37 years and, because we lived on the edge of the Great Piney Woods, rabid animals were always a concern. In fact, while I lived there we had a teenage boy die of the illness. This child died because of a rabid bat that had gotten into his home and bit him while he slept on his sofa during a daytime nap. The boy didn't think the bat had bitten him. A bat's bite is so fast, so faint, that most people will not even realize they have been bitten. They will believe the bat merely brushed past them and they had a narrow escape. Had the child gone to a doctor he would have lived but, having thought he had escaped a bite, he died a horrible, slow death.
I'm writing this to tell your readers what the authorities told all of us when we were dealing with this outbreak. If a bat gets anywhere near you, go to your doctor and get the vaccine no matter whether or not you think you were bitten. That same summer, weeks after this child lay dying in the hospital, we had another incident at our high school where students who were hanging out under the bleachers after a football game encountered a bat that flew around their heads. They had to get shots as a precaution.
In past summers here in Rehoboth I have seen bats flying through my backyard as I sat on my upper deck. When that occurs, I immediately take myself inside. They move quickly and seemingly erratically and can fly past you before you know what has happened. So please, out of an abundance of caution and while we are dealing with yet another rabid animal, if you see bats flying about, do the safe thing and get inside. You can easily tell when you have been bitten by a fox or raccoon, but a rabid bat is a whole different matter.
Karen Aszman
Rehoboth Beach
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