Second rabid bat found In El Paso County

The El Paso County Public Health Department is looking for people who may have been exposed to rabies from a bat last weekend.

Last Monday, for the second time this summer, a bat tested positive for rabies. The bat, a Big Brown Bat, was found dead near a sidewalk outside the Starsmore Discovery Center. The bat had been seen flying and landing on tree trunks in that area last weekend — behavior that is unusual because bats usually sleep during the day.

Health officials ask you to contact them at 719-578-3220 during the day, and at 719-339-3230 after hours if you believe that you, a child or a pet had physical contact with the bat.

“We’d be concerned about somebody who had a bat in their hand or on their body, or if it flew up against them,” said Marigny Klaber, the health department’s regional epidemiologist. “Bats have small teeth and claws, and you might not even realize that you’d been scratched or bitten.”

Klaber said the threat of rabies is why people should avoid touching a wild animal.

Rabies is a virus usually transmitted by a bite from an infected animal such as a bat, fox, skunk or raccoon. The incubation period is between seven and 10 days. The virus attacks the brain and causes swelling. That leads to a range of symptoms, including fever, convulsions and difficulty swallowing.

The virus is curable when patients are given a preventive vaccine. Without the vaccine, the virus is nearly always fatal once symptoms begin. Most rabies deaths occur in children.