http://news.yahoo.com/rabid-bats-kill-12-children-peru-141425919.html
>Lima (AFP) - At least 12 indigenous children in Peru have died from rabies after being bitten by blood-sucking bats, which locals at first blamed on witchcraft, health officials said.
>The children aged between eight and 15 died between September and February in two indigenous communities in the Amazon region of Loreto, regional health official Hermann Silva said.
"From the symptoms and medical reports it was determined that the 12 children from the Achuar ethnic group died from an outbreak of wild rabies," Silva told AFP.
>"The victims were bitten by blood-sucking bats, animals that drink blood, in the Yankuntich and Uncun communities in the jungle" 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) north of the capital Lima.
>She said indigenous local authorities told health workers that "the community thought the children's deaths were due to witchcraft, and that was why they didn't report the outbreak in time." The latest death of a child from rabies was reported on Wednesday. Two other patients, a boy of nine and a woman aged 22, were recovering from the illness.
>Peru's health minister Anibal Velasquez said on television that the government had declared a health emergency to get medical aid to the region quickly. Silva said vaccination teams had been sent urgently to the remote region.
>>22659
Is this not a commonplace event? Bats and humans in have coexisted in Peru for a few thousand years at least.
>>22712
Then the Peruvians are lucky that rabies seems relatively rare in bats. And unlucky to still believe in witchcraft :-(
Why the fuck is there a pig on thephoto?
>>22716
The bat is drawing blood from it. The bats bite animals while they sleep, and their saliva numbs it and also thins it, so it just drips like a tap and the bat licks it up until it's done and flies off.
fucked up.
>>22714
I thought bats were one of the most common carries of rabies amongst wild animals, and as such it's recommended protocol to get a rabies vaccine immediately after being bitten, just as you would with say a racoon. At least that's what I've been led to believe here in the United States
>>22752
But I guess it's recommended to get a rabies vaccine after being bitten by any wild animal just be safe
I don't think bats have to be rabid for children to die after being bitten by them.
>>22752
>I thought bats were one of the most common carries of rabies amongst wild animals
yes and no. "one of the most common carriers" may be true but does not mean that the incidence of rabies in the total bat population is especially prominent, it's just (perhaps) _more_ prominent than in other animal populations.
so, basically, this>>22753
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/29/can-rats-swim-up-through-the-urk-toilet
>Bat biologist Edward Stashko of Oakton College, Des Plaines, Illinois, estimates that less than one-half of 1 percent of bats are rabid. He says many common misconceptions about bats, such as that they can carry rabies and infect humans without themselves being affected by the disease, grew out of faulty scientific research from the 30s
>According to a 1982 report in National Wildlife, only ten people in the U.S. and Canada have contracted rabies from bats in more than 30 years. Exclaims Dr. Stashko: "More people have died from lawn mowers than from bats. Statistically you have a better chance of being hit by lightning than being bitten by a rabid bat."
>Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle, curator of mammals at the Milwaukee Public Museum and founder of the noted philanthropic group, Bat Conservation International (I am not making this up), further elaborates: "You have a greater chance of dying from poisoning at a church picnic than from a bat. … Cats and dogs in the neighborhood are more likely to give you rabies. You have to put these dangers in perspective. Statistically, you have a better chance in this country of dying from being hit on the head with a coconut than from a bat biting you."
>According to the CDC, by far the highest incidence of rabies among animals tested occurs not in bats but in skunks.
OK, so this is all US research, and i don't believe we get any vampire bat species up here, but clearly the dangers of bats and rabies are hugely exaggerated (this particular news item notwithstanding)
THEY TOLD ME VAMPIRES WEREN'T REAL
THEY TOLD ME EVERYTHING WAS FINE
>THEY LIED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-vNY6SKy8E
>>22822
>1982 report...
Jesus anon... get better sauce
>>22714
21st century and still believe in witchcraft... Peruvians...
>>23132
it still serves to dispel the myth that most bats are rabid. it was a 30 year study. in the 35 years since, say the incidence of bites from rabid bats has doubled or even tripled: that would still only be 20 or 30 bites in all of North America. the study provides a reliable baseline to indicate that rabid bats are a completely insignificant threat. I don't get how you reject that based on the age of the study.
>Copernicus proved the Earth revolves around the sun in a 1543 report
>1543 report
>"Jesus anon… get better sauce"
