CDC warns about rabies linked to bats after 3 Americans die in recent weeks
ABC News
The CDC issued a warning Thursday about the risk of rabies after three Americans -- including a child – died from the disease over a six-week period last year.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning Thursday about the risk of rabies after three Americans -- including a child -- died from the disease over a six-week period last year.
All three patients contracted rabies after being exposed to bats.
This brings the total number of rabies cases in 2021 to five, which officials say is concerning considering there were no cases reported in the U.S. in 2019 and 2020.
“We have come a long way in the United States towards reducing the number of people who become infected each year with rabies, but this recent spate of cases is a sobering reminder that contact with bats poses a real health risk,” Dr. Ryan Wallace, a veterinarian and rabies expert in the CDC’s Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, said in a press release.
