Assessment of risk for exposure to bats in sleeping quarters before and during remediation - Kentucky, 2012

Abstract

Bats are a reservoir for rabies viruses and have been identified as the most common source of human rabies infections acquired in the United States. The last human rabies fatality from a bat exposure reported in a Kentucky resident occurred in 1996. In July 2012, the Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH) was advised of multiple potential bat exposures following efforts to eliminate a bat colony from a volunteer facility. Bats had routinely been sighted in a brick building in eastern Kentucky that had been used as sleeping quarters by an organization that, since 1999, had hosted thousands of children and adults who performed stints of volunteer work over the course of several days. To assess the risk for bat exposure, KDPH and CDC interviewed 257 (94%) of the 273 volunteers and staff members who had slept in the facility in 2012. As a result of that assessment, 48 (19%) persons were identified as potentially exposed, and 16 (33%) of the 48 were recommended to receive rabies postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), including three persons categorized as at high risk and 13 as at moderate risk for exposure. This report highlights the need for guidelines for appropriate remediation of bat infestation and public health investigations of potential mass bat contacts.

FIGURE

Assessment of risk for bat exposure in a volunteer facility — Kentucky, 2012 Abbreviation: PEP = postexposure prophylaxis. * Had direct contact with a bat or slept in a room where a bat was sighted. ^† Had direct contact with the mouth or head of a bat or was unable to rule out such contact. ^§ Had direct contact with a bat other than the mouth or head or was unable to rule out contact with bat while sleeping.