Delta Air Passengers Safe, No Reports of Rabies: CDC
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that there is no evidence that anyone was exposed to rabies in the Delta Airline Flight that made an emergency landing at Madison due to the presence of a bat in the plane.
The incident occurred on August 5, 2011, when a bat flew through the cabin of the commercial airline minutes after takeoff during an early morning flight from Wisconsin to Georgia, potentially exposing the passengers and flight crew to rabies virus.
CDC report says that agency officials interviewed 45 of the 50 passengers that were onboard that day and found that none of them has any contact with the bat. The agency said that 5 passengers were never located for the interview.
“I would say there is no evidence (of rabies exposure),” CDC veterinarian Danielle Buttke told Reuters. Although he added, “I don’t think we can be certain. “
The airline conducted risk assessment of the two pilots, one flight attendant and 16 ground crew members associated with the flight. None of them reported any contact with the bat.
“Because the bat was not captured, the rabies status of the animal was unknown”, CDC said in the report.
According to CDC, rabies virus infects the central nervous system, ultimately causing disease in brain and death. The early symptoms of rabies in people are similar to that of many other illnesses, including fever, headache, and general weakness. More specific symptoms appear after the disease progresses like insomnia, anxiety, confusion, slight or partial paralysis, excitation, hallucination, agitation, hypersalivation (increase in saliva), difficulty in swallowing, and hydrophobia (fear of water). Death usually occurs within days of the onset of these symptoms.
In the past decade, 15 of the 21 human rabies infections caught in the U.S were linked to rabies associated with bats.