Girl at centre of rabies scare af ter bat bite
a ScHoolGIrl was left at the centre of a rabies scare after being bitten five times by a bat which flew through her living room window.
Victoria Kimmet, 11, threw up her hands in panic to fend off the unwelcome visitor when it darted into her home.
at first her family, who were sitting down to eat their dinner, thought it was a bird.
It was only when they looked up to see the bat hanging upside down from a curtain rail that they realised the danger.
Victoria, from Dundee, was later found to have five bite marks on her hand, putting her at risk of rabies through the creature’s saliva.
Her father, Steve Kimmet, said: ‘She wasn’t aware that she had actually been bitten – she just threw her hands up in a bit of a blind panic when it was flying around the room.
‘It wasn’t until it hung from the curtain rail they realised it was a bat.’
The incident happened at Victoria’s mother’s house just off Kingsway in Dundee last Thursday.
It is so rare for someone to be bitten by a bat that Victoria had to wait several hours for the drug she needed to be transferred from Edinburgh.
In 2002, Scottish naturalist David Mcrae became the first person in Britain to die of rabies for 100 years after he was bitten on the hand by an infected bat.
The 56-year-old from Guthrie, angus, fell ill after contracting European Bat lyssavirus (EBlV), a strain of rabies common in some northern European countries.
He had been bitten months before his death but had not been vaccinated because the uK is free of terrestrial rabies.
There have only been three other cases in the country since 2000.
Victoria only realised she had been bitten five times after being taken to the accident and emergency department at ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
Her father said: ‘They got medication taxied over from Edinburgh and we had to go up for more injections at King’s cross on Sunday.’
The schoolgirl will need follow-up appointments with her family doctor to make sure she suffers no side effects. Meanwhile, an officer from the SSPca was called to remove the pipistrelle bat from the house.
animal rescue officer Sharon McKenzie said: ‘I was able to catch the bat and release it outside.
‘Bats are not aggressive animals, although like any wild animal they may bite if they feel threatened.’
a small number of bats in the uK have been found to carry EBlV, including two in Scotland.
The virus is transmitted via a bite or scratch from an infected animal, or from its saliva coming into contact with someone’s mucous membranes – eyes, mouth or nose. a spokesman from Health Protection Scotland said anyone bitten by a bat in the uK should be immediately assessed and given the rabies treatment.
They said: ‘Treatment to prevent rabies developing after a bite is known as post-exposure prophylaxis.
‘You will be given one dose of rabies immunoglobulin and five doses of the rabies vaccine. If exposure is uncertain, the vaccination on its own may be considered.’
‘She was in a blind panic’