Student Bitten By Bat And Diagnosed With Rabies In Critical Condition

A high school student who had been bitten by a bat and subsequently diagnosed with rabies has been admitted in a hospital for further management and observation. Although treatment is being offered, the chances of the boy recovering is very minimal, say the treating doctors. The boy, a student of Humble High School fell ill last week, unaware of the fact that a bat had bitten him. Three weeks before this could happen, a bat had flown into his house while he was sleeping. The bat was then captured and thrown of the window, according to official reports.

So far, only 10 cases of rabies related deaths in the United States over the past 8 years, according to official estimates of the Centers for Disease Control.

However, an adolescent girl in Milwaukee was treated for rabies using a unique yet experimental combination of antiviral drugs and sedatives, the methodology of which had appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Rodney Willoughby and colleagues apparently contributed this. Following this treatment, the girl became the world’s first known unvaccinated survivor of this 100% fatal disease. Till date, it has not been possible for physicians or scientists to understand how the girl had survived.

If by some process, scientists are able to reverse this fatal disease, perhaps there is a higher possibility of it leading to the treatment or cure of rabies, claims Dr. Rodney Willoughby. Pointing out to the fact that the procedure had not been repeated on any other rabies patient to help them survive the disease, he warned about the use of such experimental procedures in the routine clinical set up.

‘None of those attempts have been even close to ideal, ‘ he concluded.