Boy, 9, finds rabid bat in his bed

MERCER ISLAND

Libby Wotipka was in a deep sleep when she heard her 9-year-old son's screams.

"Mom! Mom! There's a bat in my room," he yelled. It turned out he was right, and the bat was rabid.

It was about 3 a.m. when she ran down the stairs to Nick's room in their Mercer Island home, but she didn't see anything flying around. Nick was tucked away behind a blue blanket he had made into a tent. And at first, Wotipka thought he must be dreaming.

Then she heard the hissing.

When she pulled back the blanket, she saw it: a "big, brown blob" tearing at the covers Nick was hiding under.

"It was as if it was trying to get in," she said.

She grabbed a yogurt container and trapped it inside. She called the Seattle-King County Health Department the next day and brought the bat in to be tested for rabies.

Early summer is the time when humans come into the most contact with bats, said Marilyn Christensen, public-health veterinarian, who handles all bat emergencies for Seattle-King County.

Adolescent bats are learning how to fly but aren't very good at it yet. So they chase bugs into people's homes or roost on objects and people inadvertently carry them inside, she said.

She receives about a dozen calls a day reporting encounters. She advises residents to leave the bats alone if they are flying about or, using heavy gloves or a shovel, to put an injured bat found on the ground in a box and place it away from pets or children. It should fly away on its own, she said.

If you find one in your house during the day and don't think you have come into contact with it, open the door and let it fly out. However, if it has been spotted during the night, Christensen recommends trapping it so it can be tested for rabies. Bat teeth are so small, victims may not know whether they have been bitten.

Wotipka couldn't find any bite marks on Nick. She saw only two small scratches near his forehead. Because all the windows in her house have screens, she doesn't know how the bat got in.

Christensen said many of the 14 varieties of bats in the Northwest can squeeze through a space smaller than three-quarters of an inch.

Only two people in the state have died of rabies since an outbreak in the 1930s. In 1995, a 4-year-old Centralia girl died of the neurological disease that causes muscle aches, dementia and death. The last victim was a 65-year-old Shelton, Mason County, man in 1997.

If a bat tests positive for the disease, victims can ward off rabies through a series of immunoglobulin shots and vaccinations.

Health officials have no way of knowing how many bats carry the disease, but they estimate fewer than 100 are infected. So far this year, the county has tested 18 bats.

Only one tested positive - the bat at the Wotipka home.

As a precaution, all members of the family, including the dog and cat, all were treated for rabies.

"I'd rather be safe than sorry," Wotipka said.

Christensen, the public-health veterinarian, said anyone who has contact with a bat in King County should call the Health Department at 206-296-4880.