Animal bites need immediate medical attention.

Any bite from a dog, coyote, racoon, any domestic or wild animal…get medical attention right away.

As a career Public Health Inspector, part of our job was following up with people bitten by, or in close contact with bats, dogs, cats, racoons, and other mammals that have the ability to transmit rabies. Close contact means that there was no saliva or blood transmission onto skin that has an open abrasion. The investigation starts with a report that comes from many sources; the person bitten; the animal owner; a police report; hospital emergency ward; doctor’s offices; animal control services, etc. Under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, the Communicable Disease Regulation requires all animal bites to be reported to the Medical Officer of Health in the community where you live. These complaints go to the district inspector where it took place and are considered a priority call ahead of routine inspections and complaints. The public at large only hear about this area of public health when it is a case of a vicious animal bite/attack, or someone who has been bitten by a presumed rabid animal can’t be located, otherwise it is just a routine investigation that determines there is no rabies transmission, and no further follow-up is required.

With bats, the inspector must determine that no bite or saliva/blood exchange took place. Sometimes there is a cyclical period of increased bat presence in certain communities. In previous years, whenever a bat was found in a bedroom or where people were sleeping; it was recommended that the rabies vaccine be administered. The rationale was because the bat has very small fine fangs and the bite may not be noticed especially on the head where hair may hide a small pinhole puncture.

Dogs, cats and other domesticated pets are required by law to be immunized against rabies. That’s why we rarely hear of people dying from rabies, except where people travel to countries where rabies is endemic, get bitten, and don’t report it to authorities immediately. They will be a statistic because rabies is a fatal disease. Once the onslaught of symptoms appear it is too late.

In the case of bats at the cottage in Haliburton, we experienced the exact scenario of a bat in the bedroom overnight; my son and two cousins received the rabies vaccine as a precaution. After a 35 year career with Toronto and Scarborough Public Health, I retired, and took a contract position with Durham Region Public Health to cover for some of the maternity leaves. While I was assigned to the Port Perry office, I received a late call-in complaint on a Friday afternoon from a woman who was bitten by a bat that she accidentally stepped on while in her house while on her computer. I picked up the bat, and lucky for us there was a Federal Health Canada- Veterinary Services office located in Port Perry so the submission was efficiently managed. All suspected rabid animal carcasses are submitted to the Federal labs in Ottawa for testing for the presence of the virus in brain cells. We got the results back by Monday that the bat tested positive, and the woman received the series of shots to save her life.

Bites can happen very easily. People travel to every corner of the world. Some get bitten by monkeys, stray or wild dogs, etc. Recent statistic have shown that rabies deaths in Africa exceed 20,000/year. There are numerous reasons why this occurs no anti-rabies programs or education; no access to hospitals or clinics in remote villages; rabies vaccine is too expensive and must be kept refrigerated; vaccines are available only in major cities/hospitals.

So let’s be thankful that we have university graduates trained in public health policy, and legislation that covers all aspects of disease control, and a health system that is constantly on alert and able to treat rabies when identified.

Paul White
CPHI(C)-retired inspector
Senior Inspector; Supervisor