Girl, eight, given rabies jab after bat bite

♦ An eight-year-old-girl needed rabies injections after being bitten by a bat.

Honey Ball was in the kitchen of her rural home in Billingsley, Shropshire, when the bat flew in and bit her finger as she tried to free it. Her brother Tom, 10, called their mother and the creature was taken outside.

However, at hospital Honey was told she was at risk of contracting rabies and required five injections with two more scheduled with her GP.

Amanda Ball, her mother, said she wanted to raise other parents’ awareness of the dangers posed by bats. “You don’t think of them as being dangerous,” she said “While I know the risk was small, and it would be very rare for rabies to be an issue, I wish I had known before.”