Free Republic

The orange and white stray cat was brought to Vinton Veterinary Hospital on June 26th and tested positive for rabies four days later. A notice went up on neighbors doors in the Garden City area of Roanoke City. The cat had been seen in the 1500 block of Hillview Avenue. Heather Reed is a Veterinary Technician at Vinton Veterinary Hospital and now has to undergo rabies shots after being bitten by the rabid cat. She says, “I was at home when the health department called me and um got a little frantic because i am five months pregnant and i...

Evolving faster than any other new rabies virus on record, a northern-Arizona rabies strain has mutated to become contagious among skunks and now foxes, experts believe. The strain looks to be spreading fast, commanding attention from disease researchers across the United States. It's not so unusual for rabid animals to attack people on hiking trails and in driveways, or even in a bar—as happened March 27, when an addled bobcat chased pool players around the billiards table at the Chaparral in Cottonwood. Nor is it odd that rabid skunks and foxes are testing positive for a contagious rabies strain commonly...

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) Sonoma County musician Doug Bowes will remember this Easter season as the one where he happened upon the Easter Bunny, and it attacked him. Bowes was walking near his home at about 11 a.m. Wednesday when the attack occurred. A small, gray jack rabbit bounded toward him from a nearby fence. ``I thought, 'Gosh, this is somebody's pet,' '' Bowes said. He put his hand down in a friendly gesture and the bunny lunged and bit him. Bowes began to walk home, nursing a sore hand with broken skin, but the rabbit followed him. A short...

The Northern Ireland woman who contracted the rabies virus while working with abandoned animals in South Africa has lost her fight for life. Lisa McMurray had spent weeks in the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital after contracting the deadly disease.

Prescott, AZ (AHN) - An Arizona woman has to run for at least a mile with a rabid fox hanging on to her arm after it bit her while she was jogging, before driving herself to a hospital to receive treatment. Report said the woman, from Chino Valley south of the Grand Canyon, Ariz. was jogging on a trail near Prescott when she encountered the rabid fox which bit her leg. She told authorities she grabbed the fox by the neck but it bit her arm.

Stevensville, MT (AHN) - Health officials in a Montana county issued a health advisory after the mother of two elementary school student brought a dead bat into an elementary school for a demonstration and allowed about 90 students to touch it. The mother reportedly found the dead bat in a cat's mouth, thought the bat was interesting, brought it into school and gave presentations on the bat in five classrooms, allowing students to touch the bat and giving them disinfectant wipes for their hands afterward. However, the bat was later confirmed to have had rabies, which is a potentially fatal...

-snip- The Iowa Department of Public Health says the woman reported a bat in her house but wasn't too worried about it. She turned on her automatic coffee maker before bedtime and drank her coffee the next morning. She discovered the bat in the filter when she went to clean it that night. The woman has undergone treatment for possible rabies. Health officials say that the bat was sent to a lab but that its brain was too cooked by the hot water to determine whether it had rabies.

CARACAS, Venezuela — At least 38 Warao Indians have died in remote villages in Venezuela, and medical experts suspect an outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats. -snip-

Sixteen people who fed, kissed and held a baby raccoon on Hilton Head Island now are being treated by a physician after the animal tested positive for rabies. There also are seven more people who might need vaccines to prevent them from contracting the disease "Someone adopted a baby raccoon and passed it around to everyone they knew and kissed it on the lips," . "There was a lot of affectionate handling, kissing it and feeding it. Part of that is it was three weeks old, and they inserted fingers into the raccoon's mouth. Saliva is one way that rabies...

PHOENIX -- A rabid mountain lion like the one pictured attacked a 10-year-old boy north of Phoenix on Saturday, before being shot to death by a family member, said Randy Babb of the Arizona Department Game and Fish. "The family was riding all-terrain vehicles, took a break and while relaxing, an adult female mountain lion attacked the boy," Babb said. The boy was lucky to have suffered only minor scratches to his back, Babb said. The incident occurred in the Tonto National Forest in an area called Sheep Bridge in the extreme southeast corner of Yavapai County. The region is...

(BEIJING) - China has ordered all dogs be given compulsory inoculations against rabies to try to quell an upsurge in the disease amongst humans, the Health Ministry announced on Friday. The country has an exploding dog population, but less than 10 percent are vaccinated against rabies, the ministry's official Health News said. China recorded 3,311 human cases last year, up from 2,651 in 2004, it added. "The situation is extremely serious," the report said. "In order to control as soon as possible the rise in infections and protect people's health and security, the Health and Agriculture Ministries have demanded the...

MARSHALL: Dogs not vaccinated for disease should be euthanized. A wolf killed during an attack on sled dogs in the Yukon River village of Marshall last week has tested positive for rabies, and state officials Wednesday night said unvaccinated dogs in the village should be euthanized. The wolf was part of a pack that killed a half-dozen dogs the night of Oct. 24 before villagers chased them out, killing the one wolf and wounding others. Tests returned late Wednesday showed that animal had rabies, and the state's wildlife veterinarian said it's possible other wolves in the pack also have the...

From Plymouth Township police... Plymouth Township – On Tuesday, October 2, 2007, Plymouth Township Police Officers responded to the area of Ann Arbor Trail and Beacon Hill Dr regarding a person that was bitten by a fox. This person was jogging along the roadside when the attack occurred. Later that same day, a resident was in his yard and was also attacked and bit by a fox. Shortly after the second incident a third victim was attacked, not injured, and was able to kill the fox with a garden tool. The investigation revealed that there was one fox involved in...

HAGERSTOWN - A rabid black bear trying to rip out a window air conditioner lost its tug-of-war with a terrified housewife when her husband blasted the beast with a shotgun, the woman and a state wildlife official said today. The bear rushed the house after Charlotte Stanton yelled out her screen door to try to scare it away from a goat pen. Stanton, 39, of rural Grantsville in Garrett County, said she was losing her tussle with the 134-pound sow when Michael Stanton pulled the trigger. "I finally yelled at my husband, because I couldn't hold on to that air...

The aggressive bear that was killed a week ago by an Amish Road homeowner after the animal charged and then attempted to pull out a window air conditioner has tested positive for rabies... "We sent the head to our health and mental hygiene lab in Baltimore on Thursday and got the results Friday," ... At 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 29, the homeowners had heard a commotion outside and saw a bear attempting to get at two penned pygmy goats. When the family hollered from its main doorway at the bear, it wheeled and charged the house. "At first it was...

(Two years after amazing recovery, Fond du Lac girl is graduating today) Fond du Lac, WI - Jeanna Giese stood in the middle of the atrium at Marian College, nervously twisting a sparkly ring and frequently touching a blue bracelet that symbolized her miraculous recovery from rabies. As she cycled between anticipation of her date's arrival and fear that he might not show up, it was hard to believe that doctors once questioned whether the teen would be able to return to school - let alone recover enough to dance with friends at her senior prom or graduate on time...

Rabies Survivor Viewed as 'Medical Marvel' August 29, 2007 FOND DU LAC, Wis. — Jeanna Giese, like many other teenagers entering college, admits to being nervous about classes and meeting new friends. But Giese isn't your average freshman. She is a medical marvel who has been studied and chronicled for nearly three years as a one-of-a-kind case: She survived rabies without vaccination. Click here for a photo essay of Jeanna Giese Her new classmates, and anyone else who runs into her on the Marian College campus, will be hard-pressed to tell that she had to relearn how to talk, walk...

Softball players, coaches, family members and anyone else who had direct contact with a gray stray kitten while at the July 13-15 South Atlantic Summer Showdown softball tournament in Spartanburg county are being urged to call 211 or the closest county public health department as soon as possible. DHEC is investigating a possible rabies exposure after a stray cat found at the ball field during the tournament and passed around in a box later was found to have rabies. Anyone who was bitten, scratched, licked or otherwise exposed to the kit-tens saliva while at the tournament is asked to contact...

World health agency probes epidemic's cause as 2008 Olympics in Beijing approaches BEIJING–Huagong Road, on the southeastern reaches of Beijing, is a dusty stretch of ramshackle auto repair shops, family-run restaurants and – unfortunately for Wu Qingshan – the occasional stray dog. A 22-year-old cook, Wu had come to Beijing just four months ago, as do many people from China's far-flung provinces, to cash in on the capital's economic boom and seek a better life. But a chance encounter with a small, feral dog ended all that. Early this month, Wu became the latest victim of a rabies epidemic that...

(AP) A 5-year-old boy grabbed a rabid fox by the neck and pinned it to the ground during a family cookout, protecting six other children before his stepfather could kill the animal. "I wanted to protect my little brother," said Rayshun McDowell, who battled the fox in the front yard of his home Sunday in Kingstown, a town about 50 miles west of Charlotte. The fox bit Rayshun in the leg, but the 61-pound-boy held the animal down for more than a minute. Animal control officials said Tuesday that test results confirmed the fox had rabies, which is fatal unless...

KINGSTOWN, N.C. -- A 5-year-old North Carolina boy grabbed a rabid fox by the neck and pinned it to the ground during a family cookout, protecting six other children before his stepfather could kill the animal. "I wanted to protect my little brother," Rayshun McDowell said. It happened Sunday in the front yard of the McDowell's home in Kingston, about 50 miles west of Charlotte. Rayshun got bit in the leg but the 61-pound boy still held the fox down for more than a minute until his stepfather could get there and kill the animal. Test results confirm the fox...

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Roving “dog-beating squads” have been ordered to kill all canines within a three-kilometer (two-mile) area in a southwestern Chinese city after two residents died of rabies, officials said. The order in Chongqing's Changshou district is the second in two months in the city. The measure drew a sharp response from a coalition of environmental and animal rights groups, who sent an open letter to media calling for a boycott of Chongqing tourism and local products. It was not immediately clear whether the order covered household pets, or just strays. “If we continue to rely on such...

Health officials in New York are warning residents to stay away from stray animals over the holiday period. The advice follows a large increase in the reported number of rabies cases, including seven in December alone. The outbreak is centred on the borough of Staten Island, which lies off Manhattan, where 35 animals have tested positive for the virus during 2006.

WILMINGTON - He was irresistible -- a cuddly, black puppy, affectionate and playful despite his broken paw and his apparent abandonment on a roadside. Unfortunately for his rescuers, he was also rabid. Now about 40 people will have to be tested to see whether they were exposed to the lethal virus while the puppy, dubbed Johnny, was being treated at College Road Animal Hospital.

Howls over new 1 dog policy 01/12/2006 16:51  - (SA)   Beijing - Amid fears of police storming into homes and calls for neighbours to inform on each other, a controversial new "one dog" policy in China's capital is eliciting howls of anger from pooch lovers. Beijing authorities, concerned by the growing number of dogs in the city and a rising incidence of rabies, have decreed that households can raise only one canine. Dogs taller than 35cm have been banned, and all dogs must now be registered and vaccinated or face being taken from their owners. While the new rules themselves have...

Beijing gets 'one dog policy'08/11/2006 19:24??-?(SA)?? ?Beijing - Beijing has launched a "one dog policy" in an effort to curb a sharp rise in rabies linked to the ballooning population of unregistered canines. "Each family is permitted to raise one dog," the government said in a statement seen on Wednesday on its website announcing the new policy. "Large dogs, ferocious dogs and the unregulated raising of dogs are not allowed." "Violators of the regulations will be fined up to 5?000 yuan ($640) and their pets will be taken into custody," it said, citing regulations issued this week. Rabies has...

(Griswold-AP, Oct. 31, 2006 5:35 AM) _ Sightings of foxes have forced Griswold schools to keep children indoors. School officials Monday banned all outside activity, including recess, gym classes, walks and after-school programs outdoors. The ban will stay in force until officials and experts can offer assurances on outdoor safety. Community groups that use the campus also were alerted and athletic games are being scheduled at other schools. Griswold schools are one campus adjacent to a wooded area. A spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection says the agency will send trappers to the area to catch the foxes...

SHANGHAI, Aug. 9 — It was late last month, the boy said, his voice still tinged with emotion, when he and his father were forced to march their two German shepherds to a public square and hang them from a tree. The boy, Xia Shaoli, was not alone in his pain. Officials in Mouding County in southwestern Yunnan Province had ordered the mass extermination of dogs, pets as well as strays, after three people died in a rabies outbreak. And as a crowd gathered around a large tree in the village of Xiajiashan, owners complied one after another with commands...

Five of the popular animals euthanized after girl, 9, is bitten Public condolences poured into the Minnesota Zoo on Friday, as zoo visitors and staff mourned the deaths of an entire meerkat family. Kids raced to the outdoor exhibit in Apple Valley and plastered their hands against the glass, only to find nothing inside. A small boy in a stroller wailed as his mother told him the creatures were away on vacation. "This is a hard day. This was frustrating, sad and totally avoidable," said Tony Fisher, zoo collections manager. "People need to respect the barriers we put up to...

Zoo meerkats test negative for rabies Five of the popular animals euthanized after girl, 9, is bittenBY MEGGEN LINDSAY Pioneer Press Public condolences poured into the Minnesota Zoo on Friday, as zoo visitors and staff mourned the deaths of an entire meerkat family. Kids raced to the outdoor exhibit in Apple Valley and plastered their hands against the glass, only to find nothing inside. A small boy in a stroller wailed as his mother told him the creatures were away on vacation. "This is a hard day. This was frustrating, sad and totally avoidable," said Tony Fisher, zoo collections manager....

Rabies shots urged for 950 Girl Scouts Associated Press LEESBURG, Va. - Officials are recommending that nearly 1,000 Girl Scouts who may have been exposed to rabies at a Northern Virginia camp consider getting protective vaccinations. There is only a small chance that any of the girls were infected by bats that were found in some of the sleeping shelters at Camp Potomac Woods, Loudoun County officials said. But authorities are erring on the side of caution because around 1 percent of bats carry rabies, a viral disease that is incurable once symptoms appear. Bats can bite children in their...

Sixteen die of rabies after dog attacks in E. China city www.chinaview.cn 2006-08-04 00:51:18 JINAN, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Sixteen people have died of rabies over the past eight months after a rash of dog attacks in Jining City, east China's Shandong Province, the local government said Thursday. The disease was reported at 16 villages across the municipality, where more than 500,000 dogs live as pets or guard dogs. The local epidemic prevention authority has announced it will kill dogs within five kilometers of each affected village. Dogs in other parts will receive vaccinations against the disease. Epidemic prevention officials...

After three deaths from rabies, the local government ordered the blanket extermination of dogs. Pets were subsequently killed in the streets in front of their owners. Only police and army dogs were spared. Beijing (AsiaNews/agencies) – No less than 50,000 dogs were put down by government order after the death of three people from rabies. In Mouding county in the south-west province of Yunnan, the massacre lasted five days and only military guard dogs and police canine units were spared. Dogs being walked were taken from their owners and killed there and then. Other teams charged with slaughtering the dogs...

John Bolton, a notorious neocon warmonger who could not be confirmed as America's ambassador to the United Nations by even the compliant and corrupt U.S. Senate, got the job as a recess appointment. He is using the platform to push America into war with Iran. Bolton told the Financial Times on June 9 that the Bush regime has no intention of reaching an agreement with Iran. Time is running out for diplomacy, Bolton said. Iran has a short time remaining in which it can give up its right under the nonproliferation treaty to enrich uranium for nuclear energy or be...

WASHINGTON, Conn. -- A rabid fox attacked and bit two people and scared several others in town Saturday. Cyndy Brissett, the town animal control officer, said the fox had been living peacefully with its mate on a local property for about two years, frequently venturing through yards and eating food scraps, until Saturday. That's when the crazed fox started attacking residents. First was Janet Hill of 67 Shearer Road. She was gardening about 11 a.m. when she felt a sudden pain in her leg. Shocked, she spun around to see what it was, and saw a fox hanging from her,...

Tuesday, May 16, I was wakened from a deep sleep at 5:30 am by something biting me, I leapt out of bed and turned on the closet light to see a large rat run under the covers. I was later informed by a lady two streets over that we are under a sudden rat invasion. I had never seen a trace of a rat in my home. I took my bloody thumb to the sink and washed the wound throughly and put alchol on it, then repeated about ten mins later. I called my physician who told me to go...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Texas teenager who was bitten by a bat while he slept in his home has died of rabies, the Houston hospital that treated him said in a statement. Zachary Jones, 16, died on Friday, a week after he became ill from the bat bite he received about a month before. According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control statistics, only 10 other people have died of rabies in the United States since 1998. "Rabies, which causes devastating neurological damage, is almost always fatal once symptoms appear, as was the case with this child," Texas Children's Hospital said...

An Humble High School sophomore died this afternoon, eight days after being hospitalized for a rabies infection believed to have been caused by a bat. Zach Jones died about 4:55 p.m., according to Texas Children's Hospital, where he had been in an induced coma for several days.

A Texas teenager bitten by a bat while he slept in his Houston area home was in critical condition with rabies in a local hospital on Wednesday, health officials said. The high school sophomore awoke from a nap four weeks ago to find a bat had apparently flown in an open window in his home, said Harris County Health Department doctor Herminia Palacio. "What we have is a history of the child waking up from a nap in his room and seeing a bat in the room and having felt the bat brush against him," she said. The boy did...

(snip) From Mexico's perspective, the border encompasses some of the country's most economically prosperous states. In contrast, the U.S. border region is among the poorest areas in the United States, with >30% of families living at or below the poverty level[8]. Along the Texas border, an estimated 350,000 or more people live in 1,450 unincorporated areas known as colonias, which lack adequate sanitation infrastructure[8]. The large population movement, limited public health infrastructure, and poor environmental conditions contribute to increased incidence of certain infectious diseases[8-11] Analysis of data from the U.S. National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System for 1990 through 1998 showed...

Josh Hightower needed a kidney. But he was hardly on his deathbed. In the months before his transplant, the 17-year-old roared across his family's East Texas ranch in his four-wheeler and tossed fluid-filled dialysis bags from his truck like water balloons. On the night his mother got the unexpected call – there was a kidney for him headed to Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas – Josh was out with his longtime girlfriend, having a high-school-sized argument. But the organ meant to liberate Josh from a life of catheters and blood-cleaning machines instead caused his death: It infected him with...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A rabies alert was issued in an Orange County, Fla., community after a cat making a strange screaming sound attacked at least 15 people and two dogs in a neighborhood. Officials said an apartment tenant brought a stray black and white cat into the Cricket Club apartments and then gave it to some friends to watch at a home just north of Rio Pinar. During the stay, the cat became agitated and escaped into the neighborhood, according to the Florida Department of Health news release. As it ran through the community, it bit or scratched about 15...

ACKSON (AP) - Mississippi health officials are confirming the state's first rabies death in 49 years but are not releasing victim's name or providing other details about case. It is unknown whether the individual contracted the disease in Mississippi, Liz Sharlot, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said Wednesday. Health officials also declined to disclose when or where in the state the death occurred. Rabies is caused by a bite-related injury through contact with bats, stray dogs or cats, wild carnivores, raccoons or foxes, State Epidemiologist Dr. Mills McNeill said. But only bat rabies is present in Mississippi, McNeill...

'This is a miracle' Only known rabies survivor takes steps toward recovery By MARK JOHNSON and KAWANZA NEWSON markjohnson@journalsentinel.com Posted: June 20, 2005 Third of three parts Everyone who entered Jeanna Giese's room at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin wore full isolation gear - gown, gloves, mask and plastic face shield - to avoid any chance of contracting rabies. Early on, as she lay in a coma, the precautions painted an otherworldly scene: more than a dozen friends and relatives cloaked in yellow gowns standing in a prayer circle around her bed. But on Nov. 5, a week after Jeanna began...

Buying time against rabies Teen drifts into drug-induced coma in fight for her life By MARK JOHNSON and KAWANZA NEWSON markjohnson@journalsentinel.com Posted: June 19, 2005 Second of three parts The colorless cocktail of drugs seeped through a tube into Jeanna Giese’s upper thigh, sending her on a long journey into a coma. Thus began the extraordinary effort to save her life. Lucretia Quarterman, a pediatric intensive care nurse, checked the 15-year-old girl’s vital signs and wondered whether she would ever awaken. In Jeanna’s condition, rabies was always fatal. Even if the virus didn’t kill her, she could linger in a...

Down to a prayer As rabies saps the life from a Fond du Lac teen, doctors concoct a radical strategy to save her By MARK JOHNSON and KAWANZA NEWSON markjohnson@journalsentinel.com Posted: June 18, 2005 First of three parts John and Ann Giese stood at their 15-year-old daughter's bedside, watching her deteriorate. Jeanna had arrived at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin on Oct. 18, weak, feverish, struggling to speak. When doctors questioned her, she could answer only "Yes" or "No." Her left arm, sometimes the whole left side of her body, jerked uncontrollably. Within hours, saliva was flooding her mouth. Now, approaching...

When Jeanna Giese, 15, arrived at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin last October with rapidly worsening neurological symptoms, the fact that she had handled a bat a month earlier raised the possibility that she had rabies. Dr. Rodney E. Willoughby Jr., who examined Jeanna, did not think it was likely. But as a pediatric infectious disease specialist, he called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to seek the agency's help in performing rabies tests. Dr. Willoughby told the C.D.C. rabies expert that over a five-day period Jeanna had developed fatigue, tingling and numbness in her left hand, double vision, an...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Health alert issued after rise in rabid batsBy Jon FoggTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished June 16, 2005 Fearing a fatal foe, D.C. health officials have issued the "bat signal."     The threat is not the Joker or Mr. Freeze. It's rabies.     A year after the number of rabid bats found in the District increased to 16, the D.C. Department of Health yesterday issued a health alert, warning of increased bat activity and asking residents to avoid contact with the flying mammals.     Although no alert has been issued in Maryland or Virginia, D.C. officials did not want to take any...

A fugitive domestic cat suspected of carrying rabies must be killed, Chile's highest court has said. The Supreme Court upheld an earlier ruling saying Luz, an angora cat from Valparaiso, should be decapitated. Now police are searching for Luz after she escaped from an animal detention centre in the port city, west of the capital Santiago. Luz has not developed any symptoms of rabies, but animal experts believe she may be a danger to public health. Chile's Supreme Court unanimously upheld a ruling by a lower court ordering Luz's execution because of the risk of infection to humans. Officials believe...

Man bitten by raccoon Published Sat, Apr 16, 2005 ADVERTISEMENT OKATIE -- Tom Sudderth said he was trying to do the right thing Friday evening when he placed some boxes in a trash bin near the Oldfield general store to help a raccoon climb out. The act of kindness, however, left the 50-year-old Upstate resident one of at least two people to be bitten by a raccoon in southern Beaufort County in as many days. Another raccoon bit a North Carolina man on the shin at a Sea Pines home the night before, according to a report filed with the...