News Release 

TOMPKINS COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Alice Cole, RN, MSE – Public Health Director

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: August 28, 2008
Contact Persons: Frank Chase and Skip Parr – (607) 274-6688

Man Bitten By Rabid Bat Receiving Treatment

(ITHACA) The Tompkins County Health Department would like to thank the media, local police departments and the Tompkins County community for helping locate the man bitten by a rabid bat. The person has been located and has started post-exposure treatment for rabies. Your efforts may have saved this person’s life.

Remember, all bats are presumed to carry rabies unless proven not rabid by laboratory test! If possible, avoid contact with any bat. A bat bite, bat scratch or direct skin contact with a bat must be treated as a rabies exposure unless the bat is captured for rabies testing. When a bat is found near a sleeping person or unattended child, a rabies exposure is presumed because of the possibility that the bat directly contacted the person’s skin without the person knowing it. Capture the bat and call the Tompkins County Health Department, Environmental Health Division at 274-6688 to arrange for it to be shipped to the NYS Rabies Laboratory for rabies analysis.

The Tompkins County Environmental Health Division can be reached at 274-6688 between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. The same number will reach us after normal business hours for urgent inquires.

 

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