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RABIES, HUMAN, VAMPIRE BATS - VENEZUELA: SUSPECTED
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A ProMED-mail post
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International Society for Infectious Diseases
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Date: Wed 6 Aug 2008
Source: The New York Times [edited]
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/world/americas/07venez.html?ref=world>
A mystery disease has killed dozens of Warao Indians in recent months
in a remote area of northeastern Venezuela, according to indigenous
leaders and researchers from the University of California at
Berkeley, who informed health officials here of the outbreak on
Wednesday [6 Aug 2008].
At least 38 people have died, including 16 since the start of June
[2008], said Charles Briggs, an anthropologist at Berkeley, and Dr
Clara Mantini-Briggs, a medical researcher there. They are a
husband-and-wife team known for their research on a cholera outbreak
that killed 500 people in Venezuela in the early 1990s.
Preliminary studies of the latest outbreak indicate that it may be a
type of infectious rabies transmitted by bites from bats, the
researchers said. The symptoms, which last 3 to 6 weeks, include
partial paralysis, convulsions, and an extreme fear of water, they
said, and those who die become rigid just before death. The disease
is believed to be fatal in most cases.
"The authorities must investigate this outbreak with extreme
urgency," said Dr Mantini-Briggs, a Venezuelan public health expert
who has advised President Hugo Chavez's government on policies to
combat dengue fever. "Fear about the disease has intensified among
the Warao while a preventative response is needed now."
[Byline: Simon Romero]
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Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[The signs given here are compatible with rabies. It is possible that
rabies virus is being transmitted there by vampire bats, most likely
_Desmodus rotundus_. Attacks by these bats on humans are uncommon,
but does occur (for an example of human rabies from bites by rabies
virus infected vampire bats in eastern, lowland Peru recently, see
ProMED-mail archive no. 20050120.0193). If these are rabies cases of
vampire bat origin, it is curious that no rabies cases in horses or
cattle are mentioned, since vampire bats prefer to feed on them if
they are present, nor are bat bites on the patients mentioned, which
would be obvious.
ProMED-mail would appreciate receiving additional information
concerning this outbreak as it becomes available.
An image of _Desmodus rotundus_ can be accessed at
<http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/mzm2/72.mr2.jpg/medium.jpg>
A map of Venezuela can be accessed at
<http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/americas/venezuela.gif>. - Mod.TY]
[see also:
2007
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Rabies, human, vampire bats - Peru (02) 20070131.0395
Rabies, human, vampire bat - Peru 20070123.0299
2005
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Rabies, human, vampire bats - Brazil (MA)(04) 20051110.3287
Rabies, human, vampire bats - Brazil (MA)(03) 20051102.3202
Rabies, human, vampire bats - Brazil (MA)(02) 20051027.3133
Rabies, human, vampire bats - Brazil (MA) 20051024.3100
Rabies, humans, vampire bats - Brazil (Para) 20050615.1684
Rabies, human, vampire bats - Peru (03): discussion 20050121.0212
Rabies, human, vampire bats - Peru (02): discussion 20050120.0193
Rabies, human, vampire bats - Peru 20050118.0170
2004
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Rabies, humans, vampire bats - Brazil (Para) (05) 20040527.1428
Rabies, humans, vampire bats - Brazil (Para) (04) 20040522.1378
Rabies, humans, vampire bats - Brazil (Para) (03) 20040520.1349
Rabies, humans, vampire bats - Brazil (Para)(02) 20040417.1070
Rabies, humans, vampire bats - Brazil (Para) 20040403.0914
2002
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Rabies, human, vampire bats - Panama 20020824.5134
1997
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Rabies vaccine, vampire bats (02) 19970824.1764
Rabies vaccine, vampire bats: RFI 19970819.1745]
...................................mpp/ty/mj/mpp
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