© Amr Miqdadi via Unsplash
An 11-year-old Canadian boy died of rabies in 2024 after a bat landed on his nose and mouth while he was sleeping in a holiday home in Ontario. The incident was reported earlier this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
His parents did not seek medical attention immediately because there were no visible injuries and they did not think the bat had behaved strangely, but 19 days later, he began experiencing numbness and swelling in his face.
Doctors initially misdiagnosed him and treated him for conditions such as Bell’s palsy—which causes temporary paralysis of the facial muscles on one side of the face—and herpes gingivostomatitis. His condition deteriorated rapidly, with fever, confusion, difficulty swallowing, and visual hallucinations; he was eventually admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit and intubated, but he died of rabies.
Illustration: © Amr Miqdadi via Unsplash