ST. CLAIR COUNTY, MI \u2013 A person was bitten by a rabid bat in southeast Michigan, health officials say.<\/p>\n
The St. Clair County Health Department was notified by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services that a bat found in St. Clair County tested positive for rabies, according to an Oct. 10 news release<\/a> from the county.<\/p>\n One person was bitten by the bat and is now seeking medical care, the county said.<\/p>\n Rabies is a viral disease of mammals most commonly transmitted by a rabid animal bite or scratch. Most reported cases occur in wild animals such as bats, raccoons, skunks and foxes.<\/p>\n Around 60 animals test positive for rabies in Michigan every year, with 90% of cases found in bats.<\/p>\n Individuals can reduce the risk of exposure to rabies by avoiding contact with bats and wild animals, keeping rabies vaccinations up to date for pets, and bat-proofing their home, health officials said.<\/p>\n Any direct contact with a bat should be treated as a potential exposure, even if there is no visible bite or scratch, according to the county\u2019s news release.<\/p>\n The St. Clair County Health Department advised anyone who has had contact with a bat or suspected rabid animal to call the department at 810-987-5300 and select option 7. <\/p>\n If it is safe to do so, capture the bat for testing and contact St. Clair County Animal Control at 810-984-3155, the health department said.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. CLAIR COUNTY, MI \u2013 A person was bitten by a rabid bat in southeast Michigan, health officials…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":294592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[210,75374,75375,75376,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-294591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-howloween","10":"tag-oregon-zoo","11":"tag-oregon-zoo-halloween","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115355446459670318","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}