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[뉴시스] Reporter Yeon-woo Hong = In Illinois, a man in his 80s was bitten by a bat and died of ‘human rabies’.
The Associated Press reported on the 29th (local time) that an 80-year-old man living in Lake County, Illinois, died of rabies after being bitten by a bat in mid-August, citing the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). did.
The man’s name was not disclosed, the Associated Press reported.
At the time, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) caught the bat, tested positive for rabies, and recommended that the man get the rabies vaccine. However, he is said to have refused treatment.
The man, who had been without any symptoms, started showing symptoms related to rabies, such as neck pain, headache, arm and finger numbness, and speech impairment within a month of the incident, and eventually passed away in the middle of this month.
Authorities later said they found a colony of bats in his home.
Lake County Sanitation Commissioner Mark Pfister said, “This incident demonstrates the urgent need to raise awareness among Americans about rabies.”
“People don’t know about rabies because it’s rare in the United States, but once you get it, it’s very deadly,” he said. “Therefore, prompt treatment is very important for survival.”
This is the first death from rabies in Illinois since 1954. The Sanitation Department said 30 bats in Illinois alone have tested positive for rabies so far this year.
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