An 11-year-old Canadian boy has died from rabies after waking up with a bat on his nose and mouth.
The episode occurred during a visit to a cottage in northern Ontario in 2024, according to a report published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Monday.
Woken by the shock, the boy, who wasn’t named in the report, smacked the bat off his face. His father then caught it in a cooking pot and released it outside, doctors from the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at the University of Manitoba, Canada said in the report.
Since the child had no visible bite marks and the bat’s behavior did not seem erratic, the boy’s parents did not seek medical attention.
However, 19 days later, the boy began to experience a progressive tingling sensation and numbness on the right side of his face, followed by facial swelling and a loss of appetite.
