RICHMOND, Va. — A gastroenterologist woke last week to a bat attempting to enter her mouth in her nearly 100-year-old home, prompting an urgent rabies evaluation and a warning from public health officials about the risks of bat exposure in residences.
Dr. Krista Edelman said she was dreaming of a field mouse when she sensed something near her face. As she woke and reached toward her mouth, she grabbed what felt like a tulip, then realized it was a bat with coarse, short hair on its back.
Edelman caught the bat using a beach bucket and contacted an infectious disease doctor friend for guidance on whether she needed a rabies vaccine. Her friend urged her to seek treatment immediately, warning that exposures closer to the brain carry elevated transmission risk.
She went to the emergency department at St. Mary's Hospital, where she works. Dr. Adam Landsee, the assistant medical director for the ER, examined her.
"If you wake up in a room with a bat in your room or in your kid's room or in your house, you kind of have to assume the worst," Landsee said. He noted that bat teeth are very small, making it difficult to detect bites, and rabies is "essentially fatal" without prompt treatment.
Dr. Julia Murphy, the state's public health veterinarian with the Virginia Department of Health, said the number of bat submissions for rabies testing has increased this year in Virginia, though the positive test rate has remained steady.
Murphy advises residents to trap bats and contact local health departments or animal control services for testing. Local health departments can provide results in roughly 48 hours. If the bat tests negative, a vaccine is not needed.
Edelman's bat tested negative for rabies. She shared her experience on social media to alert others to the critical precautions.
