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SALT LAKE CITY – A man from Moroni died of rage. It is the first such death in Utah since 1944.
Gary Giles, 55, died Sunday, but suffered for weeks from an illness that doctors could not prevent to prevent infecting his brain and other organs, causing his death.
He and his wife, Juanita Giles, did not realize that the bats that had frequented their homes were carrying a rabid virus and very contagious.
"Bats never hurt us, and we always caught them in our hands and released them on the outside because you constantly hear how good they are for the insect population and you do not want to hurt them, "Giles said Thursday. .
"The bats licked our fingers, almost as if they could taste the salty of our fingers, but they never bit us."
Gary Giles first had neck and back pain and went to the local emergency room on October 19th. He was sent home with steroids and another pain management treatment for a potentially contracted muscle; but that turned into numbness and tingling and eventually wheezing. His wife called 911 and was taken by ambulance to another local emergency room.
He was again transported to the Utah Valley Hospital and then placed in the intensive care unit of Murray's Intermountain Medical Center, where he died.
"It's very scary and it creates a bit of panic," said Giles, adding that she was getting vaccinated against rabies – a series of four injections over a two-week period – just in case . Other family members are also being vaccinated, although the supply of vaccines is limited in the state.
She wants others to know the risk.
"I had no idea," she says. "We got up at night and they walked on our bed."
"I've always thought that bats were rather cute, but I had no idea what kind of risk we were exposed to," said Juanita Giles.
Epidemiologists Dallin Peterson, an epidemiologist with the Utah Department of Health, said bats are the most common source of rabies in Utah. He said that a bite or scratch of a bat might not be felt because his teeth and claws are very small.
As in the case of Gary Giles, the disease can also be transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal.
Rabies, though very rare, says Peterson, is almost always fatal once the symptoms develop. The last fatal case in Utah dates back to 74 years ago.
After being exposed to an infected animal, Peterson said that it could run from three to twelve weeks before the symptoms appeared. From there, it can run out less than a week before a person is in a coma.
"Once it gets into the central nervous system, it moves forward quickly," he said. "It's a terrible way to die."
Each year, between 150 and 200 bats are tested for health. Migratory bats come from all over the state, stopping most often along the Wasatch front. A kind of hibernating bat is also present in some national parks.
"They like nooks and crannies, caves, dark areas or attics," said Peterson.
This year, 14 bats tested by the Ministry of Health were found to have rabies. The state has an average of 20 to 25 positive tests each year.
Last fall, bat infestations were reported in West and Layton high schools. Because bats are in danger, they should not be killed, but treated by a professional. This process did no harm to anyone and houses were built to attract bats to the outside of the school.
Peterson said anyone exposed to bats, especially those with strange behavior, should consult a doctor to eliminate potential risks.
"If you find yourself near a bat, dead or alive, do not touch it, kill it, or kill it," said Peterson.
Although no human-to-human transmission has been documented outside of an organ transplant, he stated that it was "theoretically possible" to spread rabies through contact with humans. body fluids such as saliva and tears, as well as cerebrospinal and respiratory fluids.
Rabies is not found in urine, blood, serum or feces.
Peterson said that the health department had not confirmed that the man from Utah had died from an exposure to an infected bat, but a laboratory at the Center Atlanta disease control and prevention can detect the species.
In the United States, about 40,000 people benefit from a preventive treatment against rabies after a bite or scratch of a dog or cat that may not be up to date with respect to vaccination . The Utah Department of Health recommends maintaining rabies vaccinations for all pets, not only for the sake of human property owners, but also to avoid the unnecessary heartache caused by love. euthanasia or the treatment of pets.
The Department of Health recommends that people do not approach wild animals or stray animals, which may also carry the highly contagious and deadly viral disease.
Pets with rabies may have behavioral changes, general illness, difficulty swallowing, increased salivation or increased saliva, and a bite of everything.
For more information on rabies, call the health department at 801-538-6191 or visit health.utah.gov/epi/diseases/rabies.
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