DATE: Tuesday, September 16, 1997           TAG: 9709160288

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

DATELINE: MANTEO                            LENGTH:   44 lines

FIRST CASE OF RABIES IN THE WILD HITS DARE COUNTY 5-YEAR-OLD BOY WHO HANDLED DEAD BAT HAS BEEN GETTING SHOTS AS PRECAUTION

A 5-year-old boy is being vaccinated as a precaution after handling a dead bat in what officials believe is Dare County's first confirmed case of rabies in the wild.

The only previous case was in February 1993, when animal control officials confirmed that a raccoon in Colington was rabid. The raccoon, however, had been brought to the area as a pet, county animal control officer Burnie Lethig said.

``This wasn't brought in,'' Lethig said of the most recent case. ``This was a natural occurrence.''

The youngster's father called the animal shelter after finding the dead bat Sept. 6. Health officials confirmed Monday that the bat was rabid.

Humans at any risk of exposure are routinely vaccinated as a precaution because there is no way to tell whether they have contracted the virus until symptoms appear. By then, there is no treatment, and rabies is always fatal.

Rabies attacks the central nervous systems of warm-blooded animals and is introduced to the body most commonly through a bite. It can also be transmitted through an open wound, an eye socket or other mucus membranes.

The virus has spread to more than half of North Carolina's 100 counties in recent years, but it has been slow to show up in Dare County because of surrounding waters.

``We've just been keeping our fingers crossed, hoping it wouldn't get here,'' said Ann B. Thomas, Dare County's health director.

State health statistics show that isolated cases of rabies have been confirmed in Camden, Currituck, Pasquotank and Perquimans counties. The virus spread into the state from Virginia and South Carolina.

Rabies is most commonly found in bats, raccoons, foxes, skunks, beavers, nutria and unvaccinated dogs and cats. Signs of rabies in animals are unpredictable and vary, usually beginning with marked behavioral changes and progressing to paralysis.

The best way to control the disease, health officials say, is to avoid exposure to wild animals and to immunize pets. Immunizations protect the animals from disease and provide a barrier to prevent the transmission from wildlife to pets to humans.

By law, all dogs and cats must be vaccinated.

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