Boy dies after bat lands on his face while he slept

Warnings have been issued by doctors after an 11-year-old boy died from a 100% fatal disease after an encounter with a bat. The young boy, from Ontario, Canada, died of rabies after waking up with a bat sitting on his nose and mouth.

The child, however, had no visible bites or scratches, something that should be a wake-up call for people to be more cautious, a new medical article has said. “Any direct human contact with a bat, even in the absence of a visible bite or scratch, is an indication for PEP [post-exposure prophylaxis] and should be discussed with public health authorities,” doctors wrote in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, “Fatal Rabies in a Child”.

PEP is an emergency medication that can prevent rabies after potential exposure. It stops the virus from replicating and spreading throughout your immune system. To be effective, it must be started as soon as possible – ideally within 24 hours and absolutely no later than 72 hours. The treatment requires taking a course of antiretroviral drugs every day for 28 days.

According to the boy’s family, during a 2024 visit to a cottage in northern Ontario, he was awakened by a bat on his face. He swatted the bat away, after which his father caught it in a cooking pot and released it outside. Since the boy had no visible bites and the bat had not been behaving erratically, the parents did not seek medical attention.

However, more than two weeks later, the boy developed paresthesia (a tingling sensation), numbness and swelling on the right side of his face. A local urgent care clinic prescribed an antiviral drug. A few days after that, the boy was admitted to the hospital. His condition continued to worsen, with symptoms including facial weakness, slurred speech, fever, trouble swallowing, confusion and visual hallucinations.

“He was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit and his neurological condition continued to deteriorate,” the report says. “By his fifth day in hospital, he had no reflexes in his brain stem – the part of the brain that regulates breathing, heart rate and other essential bodily functions.”

By this time, doctors had confirmed the diagnosis of rabies. However, despite the effectiveness of early use of PEP, and despite decades of research, “no proven effective therapy exists after symptom onset,” they said.

“Life-sustaining therapies were withdrawn on day 17 of admission, and he died peacefully with his family at his bedside.”

Rabies is a deadly viral disease that attacks the central nervous system, typically transmitted via the saliva of an infected animal through bites or scratches. While it is 100% fatal once clinical symptoms appear, it is entirely preventable if PEP is administered shortly after exposure. A rabies vaccine is readily available in the UK, primarily as a private travel vaccine, typically costing between £50 and £120 per dose, with a standard course consisting of two to three injections over 28 days.

This patient’s case was the first locally acquired rabies case reported in Ontario since 1967, the doctors noted. They also acknowledged the boy’s family, thanking them for their willingness to share details about the case “in hopes of increasing awareness about this rare infection”.