Last year, the number of rabies deaths in the United States hit a 10-year high, mostly from bat infections

According to the Associated Press reported on the 6th, a total of 5 people in the United States will die of rabies in 2021, which is the highest number of rabies deaths in the country in 10 years. U.S. health officials said Thursday that some people did not realize they had rabies or refused to be given life-saving vaccines.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a report on the deaths of three of them, all of whom died of rabies from bat exposure. CDC officials say the deaths were tragic and could have been avoided.

One of them was an 80-year-old Illinois man who refused to be vaccinated against rabies because of long-standing fears of vaccines and later died. The other two, an Idaho man and a Texas boy, were also not vaccinated against rabies because they believed that although they had contact with bats, the bats did not bite or scratch their skin.

In all three cases, people "either ignored the level of exposure [with bats] or didn't realize the severity of rabies." One of the report's authors, CDC rabies specialist Ryan Wallace, wrote.

Image source: Visual China

Two other deaths occurred earlier in 2021. One was a Minnesota man who was bitten by a bat, and CDC officials said he was vaccinated, but an undiagnosed immune system problem hampered the vaccine's effectiveness. Another victim was bitten by a mad dog while traveling in the Philippines and died in New York after returning to the United States.

Rabies is reportedly caused by a virus that invades the central nervous system and is often fatal in animals and humans. Its most common route of transmission is by bites from infected animals, and most infections in the United States in recent years have been due to contact with bats. Rabies infection can lead to insomnia, anxiety, confusion, paralysis, salivation, hallucinations, dysphagia, and water phobia, and usually dies a few weeks after symptoms appear, but rabies attacks can be prevented by five consecutive rabies vaccinations over two weeks.

The CDC says about 60,000 Americans receive treatment each year after possible exposure to the rabies virus.

The United States did not report rabies deaths in 2019 and 2020. CDC officials said the last time the United States reported five deaths was in 2011.

(Editor: ZLQ)