Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
through saliva or a cut or scratch on the hands. The dead animal should be
wrapped in newspaper or other covering and taken to a veterinarian or local
health department. The head should be immediately delivered or packed in ice
(not frozen) and shipped to the nearest equipped health department laboratory
where the brain can be examined for evidence of rabies.
Several immunization products, vaccines and globulins, are available and used
for postexposure prophylaxis. If treatment has been initiated and subsequent
testing of the animal shows it to be negative, treatment can be discontinued.
Preexposure prophylaxis is also practical for persons in high-risk groups. These
include veterinarians, animal handlers, certain laboratory workers, and persons,
especially children, living or visiting countries where rabies is a constant threat.
Persons whose vocational or avocational pursuit brings them into contact with
potentially rabid dogs, cats, foxes, skunks, or other species at risk of having rabies
should also be considered for preexposure prophylaxis. The CDC and local and
state health departments provide detailed recommendations for rabies prevention
and treatment including pre- and post-prophylaxis. 58
Vaccination of dogs and cats in affected areas, stray animal control, and public
information are important for a good control program. In areas where rabies
exists, mass immunization of at least 70 percent of the dog and cat population
in the county or similar unit within a 2- or 3-week period is indicated. Where
rabies exists or where it might be introduced, a good program should include
vaccination of all dogs and cats at three months of age and older. Vaccines
are available for dogs, cats, and cattle; special vaccines can be used in certain
animals. A booster is recommended annually or triennially, depending on the
vaccine used. All animal rabies vaccines should be administered by or under the
supervision of a veterinarian.
Rabid bats have been reported from every state except Hawaii and have caused
human rabies infections in the United States. The vampire bat ( Desmodus rotun-
dus ) is a rabies carrier spreading death and disease among cattle and other
livestock and endangering humans in Latin America from Mexico to northern
Argentina. Annual livestock production losses are estimated at $250 million.
The anticoagulant diphenadione is effective against the vampire bat species. The
chemical may be injected directly in cattle and is then taken by the bat when it
gets its blood meal or can be spread as a petroleum jelly mixture on captured bats,
which, when released, spread the chemical by contact throughout a bat colony. In
either case, the diphenadione enters the bloodstream and the bats bleed to death.
DDT formally was used as a control measure but has been banned since 1972.
Currently, the most effective means of bat control is to screen all openings or
build them out insofar as possible. Fiberglass insulation will keep bats out of
spaces so insulated.
Any person bitten or scratched by a bat should receive antirabies therapy
without delay unless the bat (head) is found negative by laboratory test. Any
person who has handled a bat, dead or alive, may also have to undergo antirabies
therapy, as the bat saliva, containing the rabies virus, may enter a patient's body
through open cuts in the skin or mucous membranes.
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