An 11-year-old Canadian boy has died from rabies after a bat landed on his face while he was sleeping during a family trip to a cottage in Ontario, highlighting the deadly consequences of untreated exposure to the virus.
The case, which occurred in 2024, was detailed in a report published on Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
BBC reported that the boy woke up to find a bat covering his nose and mouth. He knocked the animal away, and his father later captured it in a pot before releasing it outside.
Believing there were no bite marks or scratches and noticing no unusual behaviour from the bat, the boy’s parents did not seek immediate medical care.
However, about 19 days after the encounter, the child began experiencing swelling and numbness on his face. His family sought medical attention as his condition deteriorated over the following days.
Doctors at an emergency clinic initially suspected Bell’s palsy and prescribed antiviral medication commonly used to treat infections caused by herpes viruses.
His symptoms persisted, prompting two consecutive hospital visits. During the first, doctors believed he had herpes gingivostomatitis, a viral infection affecting the mouth and gums.
When weakness spread to the right side of his face the next day, he returned for further evaluation.
While waiting to be admitted, the boy developed a high fever of 39C (102F), struggled to swallow, became confused and experienced visual hallucinations. His health rapidly declined, leading to his intubation and transfer to the paediatric intensive care unit.
Specialists from the University of Manitoba’s Department of Pediatrics and Child Health strongly suspected rabies. Laboratory tests later confirmed the diagnosis, while the Canadian Food Inspection Agency identified a bat rabies virus variant as the source of the infection.
The boy died 17 days after being admitted to hospital.
The report noted that he had no history of allergies, tick bites, recent travel outside Canada or contact with sick individuals.
Human rabies cases remain extremely rare in Canada, with the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association recording just 28 deaths from the disease since 1924.
“This low rate of rabies is due to widespread, ongoing vaccination programs, and failure to continue these programs can and will result in a return of disease,” the association states on its website.
Health experts stress that any direct contact between a person and a bat should be treated as a potential rabies exposure, requiring immediate post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent infection.
The report also warned that once rabies symptoms appear, the infection is almost always fatal.
