Experts sound worldwide alert over deadly bat virus

Experts from Brisbane’s Mater Children’s Hospital warned people worldwide to stay away from bats,after an 8 year old boy was bitten and died of Australian bat lyssavirus

This is basically rabies without a cure and they are also warning that human-to-human transmission of the virus may be possible

en.wikipedia.org...

Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) (initially named pteropid lyssavirus PLV) is a zoonotic virus closely related to rabies virus. It was first identified in a 5-month old juvenile Black Flying Fox (Pteropus alecto) collected near Ballina in northern New South Wales, Australia in 1996 during a national surveillance program for the recently identified Hendra virus.[1] ABLV is the seventh member of the lyssavirus genus (which includes rabies virus) and the only lyssavirus family member present in Australia

The boy was bitten on a family trip to Queensland in 2012,Three weeks later he began to suffer convulsions, abdominal pain and fever, followed by progressive brain problems.

He fell into a coma and died on February 22.

It says Australian bat lyssavirus has proved fatal in all cases reported to date so there is a need for increased public awareness of the risk associated with bat contact. and all people should just staw away from bats

link

Experts on infectious diseases Thursday warned people to stay away from bats worldwide after the recent death of an eight-year-old boy bitten in Australia.

The boy last month became the third person in the country to die of Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV), for which there is no effective treatment.

Doctors Joshua Francis and Clare Nourse of Brisbane’s Mater Children’s Hospital warned an infectious diseases conference that human-to-human transmission of the virus may be possible

reply to post by goou111


One kid bitten and died (RIP) and there is a worldwide alert over a bat virus?

I understand the concern, but a worldwide alert over 1 case? Bit over the top, No?

Everyone knows bats can carry rabies, who just hangs out with bats anyways? Sorry just got the chills....

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by goou111

 

One kid bitten and died (RIP) and there is a worldwide alert over a bat virus?

I understand the concern, but a worldwide alert over 1 case? Bit over the top, No?

Everyone knows bats can carry rabies, who just hangs out with bats anyways? Sorry just got the chills....

edit on 3/21/2013 by Chrisfishenstein because: (no reason given)

lol title is from the link.. I thought yeah it will be prety easy for me to stay away from bats I try and avoid them anyway

"The boy last month became the third person in the country to die of Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV), for which there is no effective treatment."


says 3 people.

Lovely, Did anyone see the movie Contagion from 2011? The movie ends with a sickened bat. Swell.

reply to post by goou111


It all has to start somewhere I guess. Was there any indication of the virus being found in other parts of the world's bat population or is it just isolate in ANZ? Would be interesting to get more facts.

dammit it's too bad them bats are good eatin'.

I can see it all playing out now...

Bat-Eating Spiders Are Everywhere



...this virus will mutate and become contractible to spiders everywhere...

...which will begin as...




...the spiders will attack humans everywhere...



...which will then bring the inevitable...



...it's all coming together now...

reply to post by UberL33t


You have me peeing my pants dude, you just threw an incurable rabies type virus, giant spiders and zombies into a chain of events. Can this legitimately happen? I mean, can these bats pass it to Spiders? And then these spiders pass it to us?



I'm not sure if my link worked, but this is my ultimate nightmare = youtube

reply to post by RooskiZombi

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by goou111

 

One kid bitten and died (RIP) and there is a worldwide alert over a bat virus?

I understand the concern, but a worldwide alert over 1 case? Bit over the top, No?

Everyone knows bats can carry rabies, who just hangs out with bats anyways? Sorry just got the chills....

edit on 3/21/2013 by Chrisfishenstein because: (no reason given)

Take a look at what was said in the quoted article, the fact that they do not have an effective treatment is the main concerning issue and that it could be spread from person to person.

Not having a way to treat it + being contagious (not only from bat to human but also human to human) is a major problem. Also given the fact that it took 3 weeks for anything to happen to that kid means people could very well have it, not know it and already be in multiple countries, spreading it like wildfire.

reply to post by Senduko


The sickened bat at the end of the movie was actually a look at how the virus came to be in the beginning because the virus had genes of a pig virus and genes of a bat virus, and it showed how the pig and the bat interacted to cause this new strain of virus. So the bat I think ate some fruit, and dropped it int he pig den, the pig then ate that fruit, then the pig was butchered and served up to the humans. Where the humans get sick and the movie contagion begins.

reply to post by DaRAGE


I knew, I didn't mention this because it would spoil the plot :p But I guess the cat is out the bag haha