An 11-year-old boy in Canada died of rabies after waking up during the night with a bat on his face—specifically on his nose and mouth—according to a case report published recently in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The incident occurred in 2024 during a family trip to a rural home in northern Ontario.
A Missed Warning Sign
The boy, whose name has not been released, woke up terrified and swatted the bat away with his hand. His father managed to trap it under a pot and released it outside. There were no visible bite marks, and the bat’s behavior appeared normal—so the parents did not seek medical care.
Symptoms Appear Weeks Later
Nearly three weeks later—19 days after the encounter—the boy began experiencing tingling and numbness on the right side of his face, followed by facial swelling and loss of appetite, according to BBC reporting.
Four days after those first symptoms appeared, he visited a local emergency department. Doctors suspected Bell’s palsy, possibly triggered by a herpes virus, and prescribed antiviral treatment. Three days later, he returned to the hospital with severe pain while swallowing and vomiting.
Clinical examination revealed oral ulcers and mild dysfunction of a cranial nerve on the right side of his face—responsible for sensation and chewing. At that point, his parents informed clinicians about the bat incident, prompting an emergency alert to public health authorities the following day. Still, he was discharged with a presumed diagnosis of herpetic stomatitis.
Rapid Deterioration
The next morning, he returned to the hospital with facial weakness on the right side, reduced sensation, and slurred speech. While waiting for admission, he developed fever, difficulty swallowing, confusion, and visual hallucinations. By evening, his condition had deteriorated dramatically. He was intubated and transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
“When we assessed the patient in the PICU, we strongly suspected rabies,” the treating physicians wrote in their report.
Diagnosis was confirmed on the fourth day of hospitalization via PCR testing. Canada’s Food Inspection Agency identified the strain as the bat-associated variant of the rabies virus.
Despite aggressive supportive care, the boy died on the 17th day of hospitalization.