
DATE: Tuesday, October 14, 1997             TAG: 9710100677

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Public Safety 
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   99 lines

ANIMALS TAKING A BITE OUT OF REGION REPORTED BITES ARE UP BUT RABIES EPIDEMIC APPEARS TO BE SLOWING.

One night this summer, Betsy Batty was walking near her Virginia Beach home on her way to her mother's house nearby. Suddenly, she felt something scratch her leg. And it hurt.

Batty panicked. She dashed toward her house. A cute little tabby cat followed, scratching both her legs, leaving bloody trails front and back.

Before the night was out, the stray cat would scratch Batty's husband, Carleton, too. A few days later, the couple learned the bad news: The cute little stray had rabies.

Now Betsy, 36, and Carleton, 38, are undergoing rabies treatment, a month-long series of shots in the arm.

``I know when you see stray animals around you want to love them, you want to feed them,'' Betsy Batty said. ``But you need to be careful.''

The Aug. 27 incident in the Seatack section of Virginia Beach was the latest in a nine-year rash of rabies cases that has plagued Hampton Roads.

Every year, more than 3,000 people in South Hampton Roads report animal bites and scratches. And each year the numbers go up.

Worse, there are more bites reported than you would expect for the area's population. South Hampton Roads has 15 percent of the state's population, but 24 percent of all reported animal bites in Virginia.

And some of those animals have rabies, a scary fact of life in almost every city in Southeast Virginia. Since 1989, there have been 124 confirmed rabies cases in South Hampton Roads - a problem that has affected every city except Norfolk.

The list of rabid animals runs the gamut from the common (dogs, cats and raccoons) to the unusual (skunks, beavers and cows).

A rabid bobcat even showed up this year in Cumberland County, halfway between Richmond and Lynchburg.

That's the bad news. But there is good news: Rabies cases appear to have leveled off, and may be dropping slightly.

The epidemic began here in 1989, then exploded in 1992. Last year there were 27 rabies cases in Virginia Beach (16), Chesapeake (6), Suffolk (4) and Portsmouth (1). Almost all came from raccoons.

This year, the numbers are down a little. Through September, there were 16 rabies cases in South Hampton Roads, all of them in Virginia Beach (6), Suffolk (6) and Chesapeake (4).

At that pace, there will be 21 rabies cases by year's end, compared with 27 last year.

And strangely enough, there has never been a case of rabies in Norfolk in the 1990s. Health officials are stumped as to why. They know rabies is more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas, but still . . .

``I don't know what we're doing right, or maybe we're just lucky,'' says F.J. Bolshazy, Norfolk's rabies coordinator. ``I don't know if it's our education program. I just don't know why we don't have it.''

Despite the numbers, dogs and cats aren't really becoming more vicious.

True, bite reports are up. They rose 24 percent in South Hampton Roads since 1991. They rose even faster in Virginia Beach (up 43 percent) and in Suffolk (up 80 percent).

But it's not the fault of the animals. It has to do with people.

``I think our reporting is better,'' says Valerie Reich, environmental health supervisor for Virginia Beach. ``People are reporting now. Physicians, citizens, health and medical people are more aware that every dog bite, every cat bite is reportable.''

``People aren't taking as many chances as they used to,'' agreed Amy Aird, Suffolk's rabies coordinator.

There aren't necessarily more people with rabies, just more rabies cases.

Consider the case of the rabid skunk. It happened in Suffolk in 1995.

On paper, it sounds strange: Who would get close enough to a skunk to get bitten?

It didn't happen that way. Officials say the rabid skunk wandered into a dog pen, then got into a fight with the dog. The skunk was killed and a test revealed it had rabies.

Whenever an animal is exposed to rabies, even a household pet, it must be put in isolation - 90 days if the pet has had a rabies shot, or 180 days if the pet has not. Otherwise, the pet must be put to sleep.

``That's why we want as many people as possible to get their pets vaccinated against rabies,'' Aird says.

The treatment for people - shots in the arm - is less severe than it once was - a painful series of shots in the stomach. Even so, some stubborn patients avoid treatment, even when they know rabies can be fatal.

One woman, for example, was scratched by a rabid raccoon at an Oceanfront hotel near First Landing/Seashore State Park. ``It took weeks to convince her to start the shots,'' Reich recalls. ``Then she started and stopped and we had to convince her to continue.''

Betsy Batty, the Seatack rabies victim, never needed convincing. She started treatment right away.

``Me, I love living,'' Batty said. ``When the Health Department said you could die, I didn't hesitate.'' ILLUSTRATION: Virginian-Pilot file Photo

Jakeem Williams, above,...

Betsy Batty, left,...<

Staff Graphic by Michael Hall

Animal Bites

South Hampton Roads Profile

Sources of rabies

Animal bites on the rise

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: RABIES