Boy seriously ill after contracting bat virus

An eight-year-old boy is in a coma after catching the Bat Lyssavirus - only the third ever confirmed case in Australia. The boy was bitten or scratched by a bat in north Queensland about two and half months ago but his parents did not know about it at the time, according to Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young. Dr Young said the case was ‘‘very sad’’ and the boy is in a coma in a Brisbane hospital with the outlook quite grim.

‘‘He’s critically unwell, the previous two cases did not survive and the vast, vast majority of people who contract rabies overseas die,’’ she said. ‘‘Very few people survive unfortunately. But we only have had three cases in Queensland so it is hard to say [what the boy’s survival chances are].’’ It is not known if the boy was bitten or scratched as he did not tell his parents about the contact with the bat when it happened and is now too sick to say what happened. He began having fits about three weeks ago in north Queensland and was eventually diagnosed with Bat Lyssavirus which is similar to rabies. 

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