Brother and Sister Die From Rabies After Multiple Bites From ‘Wild Animal’

Two children have died within days of each other after being bitten by a rabid wild animal, suspected to be a bat, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

The state health department confirmed the death of an 8-year-old girl from the city of Palo de Lima on Saturday. The patient was receiving care at the Doctor Aurelio Valdivieso General Hospital in the state capital.

The death comes after the girl’s 7-year-old brother passed away as a result of the rampage on December 28.

Rabies is a serious viral disease that affects the brain and spinal cord of mammals. The virus is usually transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected animal.

This stock image shows a person holding the hand of a child attached to an IV in a hospital. Two young siblings have died together after being bitten by a rabid wild animal, suspected to be a bat, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. iStock

Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that cases of rabies in humans are extremely rare in the United States, with one to three reported each year on average. Exposure to infected bats is the leading cause of human rabies deaths in the US, accounting for about 70 percent of deaths.

But the disease still causes almost 60,000 deaths a year worldwide – mostly as a result of exposure to rabid dogs – with the vast majority of cases occurring in Asia and Africa.

Rabies is preventable if treatment is administered soon after exposure, but when symptoms appear, the disease is almost always fatal in humans.

The CDC says it usually takes between three weeks and three months for rabies symptoms to develop, depending on factors such as the specific type of virus involved and how far the site of exposure is from the brain.

Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) injections are almost 100 percent effective in preventing disease if treatment is administered before symptoms begin.

In the case of the Oaxaca deaths, the children are believed to have been bitten on Dec. 1, but they were not taken to a medical clinic until about three weeks later, said Dr. Concepción Rocío Arias Cruz, director of the hospital. Milenio Televisión news station.

At this point, it was too late to save the siblings. In the same event, the 2-year-old sister of the brothers was also bitten, but she received treatment and did not show signs of rabies.

The 8-year-old girl was hospitalized Dec. 21 with health complications after being bitten by a “wild animal” and was in “serious condition,” Oaxaca’s health department said in a statement.

“During her stay in [Doctor Aurelio Valdivieso General Hospital], a group of multidisciplinary specialists monitored the patient around the clock; however, she suffered irreparable damage to her health as a result of the minor’s unfortunate death,” the statement said.

After the death of the first child, health authorities in Oaxaca traveled to the remote town of Palo de Lima to vaccinate dogs and cats against rabies.

Newsweek reached out to Oaxaca’s state health department for comment.