On Friday, October 24th, 1997, a New Jersey man died of rabies following a bat bite. Doctors said this was the first case of human rabies in New Jersey in 25 years.
The victim, aged 32, contracted rabies while trying to remove bats from his living room, said Dr. Donald Allegra, infectious disease specialist at Northwest Covenant Medical Center in Denville, N.J.
Dr. Allegra said he had contacted specialists in Montana and Washington, the only other ctates where human deaths from bat-transmitted rabies have occurred this year, for help in saving the man's life. By then, the victim was comatose, and was on a respirator.
Thirty-five cases of human rabies have been diagnosed in the United States since 1980. Twently of these, including the New Jersey man, have been linked to bats. Dr. Allegra said that less than one percent of bats carry the rabies virus.
The man, who was not identified in news reports, was admitted Oct. 15 complaining of flu-like symptoms, but apparently did not suspect he had rabies. The man claimed he was not bitten by bats, but according to the doctors, a victim can be bitten without realizing it.
Symptoms of rabies include high fever, difficulty swallowing, fever, aches and chills. There is no cure, and death usually occurs three to twenty days after the onset of symptoms.
The victim, who lived with his wife and two children in an old house in a rural area, had handled two bats in July, according to New Jersey public health veterinarian Dr. Faye Sorhage.
Dr. Sorhage believed that there could have been a colony of about 200 bats in the house at one time, based on the bat droppings which were present.
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