Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Death by rabies

This is the 1st case I've heard of in many years. Utah's 1st case in my lifetime.
It says that he and his wife didn't know that bats can be carriers. I thought that was generally known but I guess not. They handled them like pets and he paid the price. They had them crawling around inside the house. I wonder what it smelled like.

Utah man dies from rabies; first in state in 74 years
SALT LAKE CITY — A Moroni man has died from rabies, the first death of its kind in Utah since 1944.

Gary Giles, 55, died Sunday, but struggled for weeks with an slowly progressing disease that doctors couldn't stop from infecting his brain and other organs, ultimately leading to his death.

He and his wife, Juanita Giles, didn't realize that the bats that had frequented their home were carriers of a rabid and highly contagious virus.

"The bats never hurt us, and we were always catching them in our hands and releasing them outside because you hear all the time about how bats are good for the insect population, and you don't want to hurt them," Giles said Thursday.

"The bats would lick our fingers, almost like they could taste the saltiness of our fingers, but they never bit us."

Gary Giles first had neck and back pain and went to the local emergency room on Oct. 19 and was sent home with steroids and other pain management treatment for a potential pulled muscle; but that turned into numbness and tingling, and, eventually, wheezing. His wife called 911 and he was taken by ambulance to another local emergency room.

He was again transported to Utah Valley Hospital, and then put in the intensive care unit at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, where he died.

"It's very scary and it is creating a bit of a panic," Giles said, adding that she is getting rabies vaccinations — a series of four shots over two weeks — just in case. Other family members are also getting vaccinated, though the supply of vaccine is limited within the state.

She wants others to be aware of the risk.

"I had no clue," she said. "We would wake up in the night and they would be walking on our bed."

"I've always thought bats were kind of cute, but I had no idea the kind of risk we were at," Giles said.

A fundraising page* has been set up to help the family.

"My dad has always been a giver," Crystal Sedgewick, Giles' daughter who set up the page said. "During the final 24 hours that he was still able to speak with us, he was in a delusional state, and he still couldn't stop talking about all the people that he needed to help and favors that he had yet to follow through with."

She said it is difficult for the family to ask for or accept anything.

Bats are the most common source of rabies in Utah, Utah Department of Health epidemiologist Dallin Peterson said. He said a bite or scratch from a bat may not be felt because a bat's teeth and claws are very small.

The disease, as is likely with the case of Gary Giles, can also be transmitted via an infected animal's saliva.

Rabies, though very rare, Peterson said, is nearly always fatal once symptoms develop. The last deadly case in Utah was 74 years ago.

After exposure to an infected animal, Peterson said it can take three to 12 weeks for symptoms to show up. From there, it can be less than a week until a person is in a coma.

"Once it gets into the central nervous system, it advances quickly," he said. "It's a terrible way to pass away."

Between 150 and 200 bats are submitted to the health department every year to be tested. Migratory bats come from all over the state, most frequently stopping along the Wasatch Front. A hibernating kind of bat is also found in some national parks.

"They like nooks and crannies or caves, dark areas or attics," Peterson said.

This year, 14 bats tested by the health department have been found to have rabies. The state averages 20 to 25 positive tests each year.

In the fall of last year, bat infestations were found in West and Layton high schools. Because bats are endangered, they should not be killed, but dealt with by a professional. No one was harmed in the process, and houses were built to attract the bats outside of the school.

Peterson said anyone exposed to bats, especially bats that exhibit odd behavior, should seek medical help to rule out potential risk.

"If you find yourself near a bat, dead or alive, do not touch, hit or kill it," Peterson said.

While no human-to-human transmission has been documented outside of organ transplantation, he said it is "theoretically possible" to spread rabies through contact with bodily fluids such as saliva and tears, as well as cerebrospinal and respiratory tract fluids.

Rabies is not found in urine, blood, serum or feces.

Peterson said the health department hasn't confirmed that the Utah man died from exposure to an infected bat, but a Center for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory in Atlanta can detect the species.

An estimated 40,000 people in the United States get preventive treatment for rabies after a bite or scratch from a dog or cat that might not be up-to-date on vaccinations. The Utah Department of Health advises keeping up on rabies vaccinations for all domestic animals, not only for the sake of human owners, but to avoid the heartache of unnecessarily euthanizing or treating pets.

The health department advises people to not approach wild animals or strays, which can also carry the highly contagious and fatal viral disease.

Domestic animals with rabies may exhibit behavior changes, general sickness, trouble swallowing, increased drool or saliva and biting at everything.

For more information on rabies, call the health department at 801-538-6191 or visit health.utah.gov/epi/diseases/rabies.

tough way to go....

Proof Darwin is correct.

if i remember right there was a girl from Victoria, tx who survived rabies, one of only a couple known cases that did.

I remember one case of surviving it quite a few years ago. That was a young boy, IIRC. They treated symptoms, not the disease which has no cure. The doctors hovered over him and jumped on each symptom as it happened. By doing that, they kept him alive until it ran its course.

I'm sorry about the man dying but anyone who lets bats crawl allover them is looking for a disaster. You can't fix or save stupid.

Right out of college I sold rabies vaccine to hospitals while with Cutter Biological. While in training in SF, CA, I got to see a man with rabies while Cutter actually filmed his death. (With permission) It was horrible beyond words. Cutter filmed it to make people aware of how bad this infection is and if you even think you may be infected, go get treated. The shots are not as bad as they used to be. If, God forbid, you do get rabies and it is not treatable...go home, kiss your family goodbye and walk into the woods and end it yourself before you can't. Your family does not need to see you suffer like that and fewer than few survive. The US has gone from 100 cases a year in the 1800's to two last year. Depending on your source, only one or three people in the US have ever survived Rabies without taking the shots. Once it reaches your nervous system...well, there's not much hope. Yes, bats are the number one source of contracting Rabies in the US.

A local man here in Missouri died from rabies a few years ago. He was bit on the ear by a bat.

Stupid is as stupid does.

use to catch bats when i was a kid, didn't know better.

Cutter Pharmaceutical?? Wow, you must be oooold. I used to used their vaccine for sore mouth in sheep when I started practice. Good times...

Note where the man lived, ironic?


mike r

Nothing in the story about why the bats liked the interior of their house. They were always "catching them by hand". I imagine that means the bats had gotten inside the house. Also crawling on their bed at night. Maybe their house had become a hibernaculum? Or a roost during the summer. Doesn't seem smart, and I'd guess they were "critter lovers".

I'm thinking they needed a few bull snakes in their attic.

Geno

Ruff way to go. Hard to believe there is anyone over the age of 15 let alone 55 that doesn't know bats carry rabies.

my grandmother used to talk about rabies in people. mad dogs in late summer were common, folks would run when someone in a neighboring field called out "mad-dog coming."

she said when some one contracted rabies, their family would put them in a locked room in the house with a spoon in their mouth until they passed, died, transpired, transitioned, whatever. it was gruesome beyond belief, but no treatments, and hardly any doctors for the rural areas.

My great-grandmother died after being bitten by a skunk, sometime around 1900. From what I recall of what my grandmother said, hers was the "dumb" variety, that is, not violent. My grandmother was also bitten by a skunk after she kicked it, thinking it was a cat rubbing against her legs, but lived to be 93.

My aunt had a bat bite her after ending up in her car while she was driving, she had her windows down. She had to have shots and medications for months.

Back when I worked in the "rabies lab" in Fairbanks, about once per year we'd have a CE that was a documentary film about rabies and had footage of a man through his final days of rabies death.

Brutal death.

There’s a woman on YouTube who’s primary interest is bat rescue. She handles injured and trapped bats by hand regularly and nurses them back to health. I wonder if she considers this.

She may be vaccinated.