Maine has recorded an alarmingly high number of rabid animals this year, likely the result of an unusually warm winter that’s prompting skunks, raccoons and other wildlife to roam more freely, according to state officials.
With the recent addition of two rabid foxes found in a York County neighborhood, the state confirmed 11 cases of rabies in January, compared with just one in the same month last year. Three of those cases resulted in exposure to humans, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
This year’s cases also occurred in Knox, Lincoln, Androscoggin, Cumberland, Kennebec and Oxford counties.
The lack of significant snowfall this winter may be enabling infected animals to come in greater contact with each other and with pets, livestock and humans, according to state veterinarian Dr. Don Hoenig.
“Make sure your pets are vaccinated,” he said. “Avoid any contact with wild animals, especially wild animals that are acting in unpredictable ways.”
Maine averages about 65 cases of rabies each year.
The rabies virus is spread through a bite or scratch from an infected animal or when saliva or tissue from the animal’s brain or spinal cord gets into the eyes, nose, mouth or an open wound.
Being in an infected animal’s vicinity or, for example, petting a dog or cat carrying the virus will not lead to infection, according to State Epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Sears.
“Unless [a person] has a direct exposure, they’re not going to get the disease,” he said.
The most common rabies carriers in the wild are raccoons, skunks, bats and foxes. Domestic animals also carry the disease — one cat was infected last month, and two sheep and one horse tested positive for the virus last year.
In 2011, 143 people in Maine received treatment for rabies. Most were only suspected of exposure to the virus, as authorities can’t always capture and test the animals involved, especially with rabid bats.
Symptoms can take anywhere from three weeks to a year to appear, Sears said. Because onset of the disease can last several days, treatment need not immediately follow a bite or scratch from a rabid animal to be effective, he said.
Anyone exposed to rabies should wash the wound with water, contact the local animal control officer and seek medical care, Sears said. Treatment for rabies involves a four-dose vaccine and a shot of globulin, which provides antibodies to prevent rabies infection, he said.
To report rabies exposure, call the Maine CDC at 800-821-5821.
Rabies is not spread from a scratch, unless there is infected saliva on the animals nails. Simply being scratched from an animal is not going to do anything.
Must be the republicans trying to “take a bite” out of the democrats.
Have no fear. The last person to die of rabies in Maine was in 1935 – 78 years ago in Farmington. I have been bitten by a rabid coon, as has my brother and many others, and the shots are no worse or any different than getting an influenza shot. I do not understand WHY the State and other entities continually try to scare the people with the rare and occasional presence of a single rabid animal. I can only guess that somebody is making a dollor bill by doing it. Or maybe is just trying to enhance a dull news day.
Maybe because prevention is easier than treatment?
Maybe no treatment is ever 100% surefire?
Maybe because there are costs for treatment, not always paid by the the person exposed, but by the rest of us via increased insurance rates and/or taxes?
Or maybe some people do not ever want to go to a doctor–“Oh, it’s just a little rash”?
Maybe because symptoms can take anywhere from three weeks to a year to appear?
Or maybe the CDC is just doing its job, and informing the public?
Maybe that is why the last person to die in Maine WAS in 1935, because government is on the job for us?
I don’t see a big “anti-rabies lobby” do you?
If boring to you, click away, turn the page!
The rabies vaccine has a shelf life, so only hospitals stock it.
We occasionally have bats in our 90-year-old house, but all we have to do is open the door, and they fly out. Except one night I rolled over in bed and touched something that was not human. We managed to get the bat out of the house — we never did see it fly, and it came walking across the porch floor with its wings spread and its mouth open after we dumped over the bowl we had trapped it under. When we realized the next day that I had touched it and he had a scratch on his face that hadn’t been there the day before, we called the doctor and were told to go to the emergency room.
So we had ER fees, plus the shots, and even though we both have insurance, it did not cover the costs and we EACH paid over $2000 out of pocket to cover the series of shots. If we had not had insurance, it would have been more than double that.
If you have a spare few grand sitting around to spend on the shots, sure, go touch that raccoon and risk getting scratched or bitten. Because if you have an encounter with a rabid animal, and you don’t get the shots, and you get rabies, you WILL die. There is one — only one — person in the known medical history of the entire world who has gotten rabies and survived.
You said the shots were not bad. They were not (except, for the third in the series, they gave us a different brand, and he had a mild and I had a moderate allergic reaction). It was the cost that was the worst. The very strict schedule was not great either, interfering with work.
So Bill, you must be either very rich, very fortunate in your insurance coverage, or very poor so that the state (meaning the rest of us) paid the tab. The rest of us should do everything we can to avoid having to go through that.
My whole family did the series of rabies shots last August.
Just to add another interesting item for comparison should any of you fear getting bitten by a rabid animal. I am doing research and at this moment, I am reading a January 24, 1941 issue of the Lewiston Daily Sun. It has a an article that says: “State Police records for December show 522 arrests, and 178 accidents in which 14 were killed and 71 injured and not a single person was bitten by a rabid animal.” Watch out for those rabid skunks, folks. The population is peaking because of this nice weather we are having. LOL
BDN: Can we stop the bat-phobia, please? No cases have been reported due to bats according to this article, and they are dwindling in numbers rapidly due to white-nose disease. The scare tactic of putting a bat image is a little ridiculous, and encouraging folks to fear these benign animals is pathetic.