NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters Health) -- One person was diagnosed with rabies in the US in 1998, a 29-year-old Virginia prisoner who died of the disease on December 31, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The case was the first diagnosed in Virginia since 1953, and could not clearly be linked to an animal bite. The strain of the rabies found in the man is one carried by bats, though prison officials and other inmates at the Nottoway Correctional Center in Nottoway County could not recall that he had any contact with the animals.
The most likely explanation "is an unrecognized bat bite occurring either at the farm or recycling facility or while the patient was working on a road crew," according to the report. "Because the incubation period for rabies varies from several weeks to several months, he may have contracted rabies before his transfer to Nottoway."
Forty-eight people, including three family members who visited the man, were given prophylactic treatment for rabies, because of possible exposure to the man's saliva via shared food, cigarettes, or while caring for him at the hospital.
The prisoner first became ill on December 14 with muscle pain, vomiting and abdominal cramps and was sent to the hospital on December 18 with a 103 degree temperature. His condition worsened, and rabies was diagnosed on December 22, according to the CDC report.
Because rabies is usually fatal, CDC officials advise people who come into contact with bats to contact a doctor regarding the need for rabies prophylaxis, even if there is no obvious bite.
SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 1999;48:95-97.
