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Case Reports
. 2003 Jun;9(6):721-3.
doi: 10.3201/eid0906.020632.

Human rabies: a reemerging disease in Costa Rica?

Xiomara Badilla  1 , Victor Pérez-Herra, Ligia Quirós, Ana Morice, Edwin Jiménez, Elizabeth Sáenz, Fernando Salazar, Rodrigo Fernández, Lillian Orciari, Pamela Yager, Sylvia Whitfield, Charles E Rupprecht
Affiliations
Case Reports

Human rabies: a reemerging disease in Costa Rica?

Xiomara Badilla et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2003 Jun.

Abstract

Two human rabies cases caused by a bat-associated virus variant were identified in September 2001 in Costa Rica, after a 31-year absence of the disease in humans. Both patients lived in a rural area where cattle had a high risk for bat bites, but neither person had a definitive history of being bitten by a rabid animal. Characterization of the rabies viruses from the patients showed that the reservoir was the hematophagous Vampire Bat, Desmodus rotundus, and that a sick cat was the vector.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Patient’s home, located in an area where the risk of being bitten by a bat was high.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Annual prevalence of Vampire Bat bites, Costa Rica, 2001.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Human rabies cases, Costa Rica, September 2001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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