A Boston man is fighting for his life after contracting human rabies, the first case to hit Massachusetts in more than 75 years. It is believed that he may have been bitten by a bat in his home and unfortunately, his chances of surviving are poor. More details after the jump…
The man, who has not been identified, is in a critical condition and state public health officials say the chances of him surviving the highly deadly disease are poor.
‘It is not clear how the man was infected, but there was evidence that he may have been exposed to a rabid bat, said Dr. Al DeMaria, medical director of the state’s Bureau of Infectious Disease.
“Over the last few days he wound up being hospitalized with enough clinical symptoms to suggest the potential for rabies,” DeMaria said.
Tests performed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the diagnosis on Thursday, he said.
‘Unfortunately there have been very few survivors of rabies,’ DeMaria added.
Rabies is a deadly virus which affects the nervous system and the brain and spreads to humans from the saliva of infected animals.
The last confirmed case of human rabies contracted in Massachusetts was in 1935.Â
DeMaria said he believed that victim was a teenager from Saugus.
The CDC reported two other fatal human rabies cases this year, one in New York and one in New Jersey, with both victims believed to have acquired the disease from dog bites outside the U.S., Haiti in one case and Afghanistan the other.
Experts say preventative treatment for humans feared to have been exposed to rabid animals has proven nearly 100 percent effective in staving off the disease, as long as the treatment is given before the onset of symptoms.
‘If someone presents after they have developed the symptoms and signs of rabies, it’s the reverse,” said Dr. Laurence Madoff, director of the Division of Epidemiology and Immunization at the Massachusetts DPH.  ‘Almost no one survives at that point.’
DeMaria said the state hopes to confirm shortly from the CDC if the victim contracted rabies from a bat.
He said authorities were still determining whether family members or other people who had contact with the infected man will be given preventative treatment, but he added that there has never been a medically documented case of person-to-person transmission of rabies.
