[snips]
Scientists from the United States say early investigations into the deaths of a number of tribal Indians in northeastern Venezuela suggest that they may have been infected by a type of rabies carried by bats.
The outbreak has killed as many as 38 Warao Indians since June 2007, 16 of those have died since June this year, including 8 children from one village.
Though laboratory tests have yet to confirm the outbreak is indeed rabies, experts say it is highly likely and the disease was almost certainly carried by vampire bats whose colony had been disturbed by mining, logging or damming projects.
A research trip at the invitation of indigenous leaders to investigate the outbreak, took the two through 30 villages in the delta.
Dr. Mantini-Briggs says she was surprised to find that many Warao villages had acquired cats and they were told it was because there were too many bats that were biting the children.
Vampire bats who hunt only when it is fully dark have highly sensitive hearing which can pick up sleeping creatures. They are known to approach their victims on foot before biting them and then lapping up the blood at the site of the wound. They can survive on a purely liquid diet and their saliva contains a substance known as draculin, which prevents their prey's blood from clotting.
Dr. Mantini-Briggs and her husband were themselves forced to take precautions to protect themselves after waking one morning in a Warao village to find blood on their bedding and bite marks on a finger, they will now be vaccinated.
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=40680
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Un-vaccinated cats killing rabid bats = trouble.
Scientists from the United States say early investigations into the deaths of a number of tribal Indians in northeastern Venezuela suggest that they may have been infected by a type of rabies carried by bats.
The outbreak has killed as many as 38 Warao Indians since June 2007, 16 of those have died since June this year, including 8 children from one village.
Though laboratory tests have yet to confirm the outbreak is indeed rabies, experts say it is highly likely and the disease was almost certainly carried by vampire bats whose colony had been disturbed by mining, logging or damming projects.
A research trip at the invitation of indigenous leaders to investigate the outbreak, took the two through 30 villages in the delta.
Dr. Mantini-Briggs says she was surprised to find that many Warao villages had acquired cats and they were told it was because there were too many bats that were biting the children.
Vampire bats who hunt only when it is fully dark have highly sensitive hearing which can pick up sleeping creatures. They are known to approach their victims on foot before biting them and then lapping up the blood at the site of the wound. They can survive on a purely liquid diet and their saliva contains a substance known as draculin, which prevents their prey's blood from clotting.
Dr. Mantini-Briggs and her husband were themselves forced to take precautions to protect themselves after waking one morning in a Warao village to find blood on their bedding and bite marks on a finger, they will now be vaccinated.
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=40680
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Un-vaccinated cats killing rabid bats = trouble.
