Carroll County health and animal welfare officials are recommending residents reacquaint themselves with precautionary measures against rabies after a feral cat outside Manchester bit several people and tested positive for rabies.
According to Ed Singer, director of environmental health for the Carroll County Health Department, while rabies in domestic animals is rare, and human infection rarer still, it is important that pet owners have their animals vaccinated against the virus, that they report any bites by unknown animals to the health department for investigation and that they limit their contact with unknown animals.
Singer said that a feral cat exhibiting signs of rabies - extreme salivation and lethargy - bit two people in the area of York Road #1, north of Manchester, on Jan. 19, and subsequently tested positive for the disease. The Health Department began treating the two individuals that were bitten with the rabies vaccine, provided booster vaccinations for two veterinary technicians that were also bitten, and also canvassed the area to ensure no one else had been in contact with the rabid animal.
According to Doris Hare, communicable disease program manager at the Health Department, it is common practice for previously vaccinated persons, such as veterinary technicians, to receive two booster doses of vaccine after a new exposure to rabies, while previously unvaccinated persons receive a series of four doses over a 14-day period.
Singer said he believes the individuals bitten will be okay following treatment.
"To my knowledge, the post-exposure treatment regimen has always been effective when administered effectively," he said.
According to Nicky Ratliff, executive director of the Carroll County Humane Society, the rabies virus is typically found in wild animals and most commonly in raccoons. It can be transmitted through saliva to humans by an animal bite and although not every bite leads to rabies infection, the stakes are high: once symptoms appear, the result is always fatal.
"Rabies is not that easy to catch. The major issue is that if you get it, it's a death sentence," Ratliff said. "You can live a nice life with AIDS, but you cannot live a nice life with rabies. You will be dead."
Rabies is entirely preventable in humans so long as the vaccine is administered prior to the onset of symptoms, Ratliff said, which is why it is important that all animal bites be reported to local health officials.
"Every parent has to tell their children and tell them often, 'If you ever get bitten or scratched by an animal, please let mom and dad know,'" Ratliff said. "The bottom line is, cats do bite kids, and they bite them fairly regularly, because kids just don't seem to know how to play with cats."
Animal bites can be reported to the Carroll County Health Department by calling 410-876-4900 and asking to speak with a communicable disease nurse, according to Doris Hare, communicable disease program manager at the health department. The health department will assess the situation and determine if the animal needs to be caught and tested and whether or not administration of the rabies vaccine is warranted.
Kim Mitchell, chief of rabies and vector-born diseases for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said that while it is important to be aware of the risk of rabies, it is also important to keep in mind that it is not a common disease: Carroll County saw only 14 cases of rabid animals in 2013, one cat, one bat, one skunk and one fox, with the remainder being raccoons. Barring a strange case involving an organ transplant in 2013, there have been no rabies fatalities in Maryland since 1976.
Ratliff said that the combined rarity and lethality of rabies underscores the importance of prevention as well as the fact that it is an entirely preventable disease: Avoiding strange animals and reporting any animal bites will help tremendously, but the most important thing is to have pets vaccinated.
"It's very important to vaccinate your pets against rabies. It's the only protection humans have against the rabies virus," Ratliff said. "You are no more apt to get rabies from a feral cat than a pet."
According to Singer, Maryland law requires that all dogs, cats and ferrets receive the rabies vaccine and periodic boosters and that this law also applies to any stray animals that a person might be feeding.
"Once a person begins caring for an animal by providing it food ... they become the animal's 'custodian' and are legally responsible to ensure the animal is vaccinated," he said.
The Carroll County Health Department offers two annual walk-in rabies vaccination clinics, one in spring and one in fall, according to Singer. This year, the clinics will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on April 13 and Sept. 28 and will cost $7 per animal.
Beyond the protection provided to human owners by pet vaccination, Singer said that vaccinating pets against rabies is the humane action for responsible owners. Previously vaccinated pets that are suspected of contact with a rabid animal, perhaps a cat that is wounded in a fight with a suspected raccoon, are quarantined in the owner's home for 45 days of observation and given booster shots.
Unvaccinated animals, on the other hand, are kept in a strict quarantine for six months, enclosed in a double-walled containment unit and having contact with only one person that feeds them.
"In most cases if an unvaccinated pet is exposed to a rabid animal it is euthanized. It is very difficult to care for an animal that is confined and is obviously not very pleasant for the pet to be confined to a small space for six months," he said. "Obviously, it makes a lot of sense to vaccinate a pet."
