Six deaths have been reported in rage in the last 12 months in the US, the highest figure in years, according to the centers for disease control and prevention (CDC). From rabid skilles in Kentucky to gray foxes in Arizona and Mapaches in Long Island, wild animals in more than a dozen US places have experienced an increase in this deadly disease, driven, at least in part, by the reduction of natural habitats and better surveillance.
“We are currently tracking 15 possible different outbreaks,” said Dr. Ryan Wallace, who directs the rage team of the centers for disease control and prevention. The areas with outbreaks include Nassau County, New York, which issued a sanitary threat by rabid animals last month, as well as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and parts of Alaska, Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont.
“There are areas of the United States where we are receiving more calls and more reports,” said Wallace, pointing out an increase in rabid foxes in the west and rabid bats throughout the country. “We can only know if these figures represent really significant increases at the end of the year. But right now, in the middle of high season, it seems that the activity is greater.”
Rabies is present in all states except Hawaii. Bats are the most common cause of infection by rage in people and also the species with the most likely to get the virus, according to CDC.
Every year, 1.4 million Americans undergo testing to detect possible exposure to rabies virus and 100,000 receive a series of vaccines to prevent the disease, according to CDCs.
Last month, Samantha Lang was one of them. Land, 22, was probably bitten by a bat that entered his apartment from a roof hole in Greenwood, Indiana. The day after noticing small brands on his arm, he discovered the bat, alive, hung from the air conditioning grid. After contacting the Local Health Department, they recommended that you receive antirrabic postexposition prophylaxis. He received it immediately.
“I never thought I would have to worry about that,” Lang said.
The rabies virus invades the central nervous system and is almost always deadly once the symptoms appear. The first symptoms, which may appear approximately one week or up to one year after the exhibition, may resemble those of the flu and progress quickly to confusion, paralysis, excessive salivation, hallucinations and difficulty swallowing, followed by death in a matter of weeks.
The number of human deaths during the last year is worrying, according to experts. In comparison, between 2015 and 2024, 17 cases of human rabies were reported, two of which were contracted outside the US, according to the CDC.
Exposure to rabies virus occurs more frequently through the saliva of an infected wild animal, which can come into contact with the mouth, eyes or a wound, which is why bites are so dangerous. Before the 1960s, most cases in humans were due to infected pets, usually dogs. Thanks to strict pet vaccination laws, the canine strain of rabies has been eradicated from the US.
One of the most drastic increases in wildlife infections has been recorded in Franklin County, near the region of the Research Triangle in the center of North Carolina, where the number of confirmed cases in wild animals was doubled during the last year.
“That the number of confirmed cases has increased 100%, and we have not even exceeded this year’s rage season, it is a big problem,” said Scott Lavigne, director of County Health.
Lavigne suspects that urban growth, which has been invading the habitats of wild animals, has been an important factor in the spread of rabies.
A woman visited by Arizona received a high medical invoice after a bat enter her mouth while shouting. “It was a strange accident. I’m not sure what part of the bat was there, but … I tried it.”
“Franklin County’s population has increased by 35% since 2010, and those people have to live somewhere,” he explained. “Therefore, there is an increase in urbanization and housing construction.”
Animals that could now have been isolated now overcrowded, and if one contracts rage, it is more likely to spread to other members of the group, Lavigne explained.
People do not always know that they have been exposed to an animal with rage. Deaths of people who did not realize that they had been bitten or scratched by a bat and that rejected the vaccines that saved their lives have been reported.
In December, a California teacher died a month after removing a bat from her classroom. I didn’t know I was infected.
The virus can evolve and manifest in different ways, depending on the animal species and strain. Most people expect a rabid animal to be aggressive and fierce, but sometimes the infected animal can be quite docile.
“There is a strain of rage in which animals become very, very friendly,” Lavigne said. A “family saw a mapache that appeared at the entrance of his house; he was sick, it was so nice that he wanted him to caress him. And they already know, when the Mapaches do not teach the teeth, they are quite cute.”
The family stroked and fed the animal until it died. They called animal services to collect the body. “And thank God they did it, because when they sent the brain to analyze it, it gave positive, so the whole family had to get vaccinated,” said Lavigne. “My God! They would never have learned if they had not called animal services.”
Concerns about vaccination rates in dogs
As anger seems to be spreading more among wildlife, veterinarians are especially concerned about the growing reticence to vaccines among pet owners, a dangerous trend that could cause more dogs, and their owners, infected. A 2023 study published in the Vaccine magazine revealed, in a representative sample at the national level of American, that almost 40% believed that canine vaccines were dangerous and 37% believed that vaccines could cause their dogs to develop cognitive problems, such as autism.
Dr. Gabriella Motta, veterinarian of Glenolden, Pennsylvania, and co -author of the study, comments that he often serves customers concerned about the possibility of vaccines damage their dogs.
“It is a problem that worries us and that could increase in the future,” Motta said. “If we continue to see a drastic decrease in vaccination rates or an increase in reticement to vaccines, will we see [rabia] In more pets, and not only in wildlife? We are starting to give the alarm. “
Antirrabic vaccines after the exposure have advanced a lot since they were injected into the abdomen. The current series consists of an injected dose of immunoglobulin, which contains anti -rabic antibodies, immediately after the exposure, followed by four vaccine injections. Now, all injections are administered in the arm.
The general rule, experts say, is that it must be suspected of rage every time a wild animal behaves aberrantly, either too aggressive, too intrepid or too friendly.
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This note was originally posted in English by Marina Kopf, Linda Carroll and Anne Thompson for NBC News. For more than NBC News, Click here.
