In the Americas. European bats are basically entirely rabies free, as are Australian bats. And even then, there are less than a double handful of human rabies cases in the US yearly due to bats.
That said, that double handful of people are all dead, and it hurt the entire time they were dying. Better a hundred needless treatments than one missed case, so if you suspect you may have a bat bite in the US, see a doctor.
I’m neither a biologist nor an epidemiologist, but
In the Americas. European bats are basically entirely rabies free, as are Australian bats.
Did I at any point mention European or Australian bats, or any bat species that doesn’t feed on blood and is therefore highly likely to transmit rabies?
In parts of SA vampire bats are the most common rabies vector, and it’s relatively common to get bit. There’s an increasing number of cases due to habitat destruction
But since you want to talk about European bats
Rabies in bats has been reported in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Norway and Finland.[23] There has been little research in this area, compared to terrestrial rabies, but according to the European Rabies Bulletin, “it can be assumed that bat rabies occurs all over Europe.”[23] Bats in Europe can carry European bat lyssavirus 1 (EBLV-1), European bat 2 lyssavirus (EBLV-2), Bokeloh bat lyssavirus (BBLV), West Caucasian bat lyssavirus (WCBV), Lleida bat lyssavirus (LLEBV) and Kotalahti bat lyssavirus.[23] There have been five reported human deaths from rabies acquired from bats in Europe: in Ukraine (1977, species not characterised), Russia (1985, EBLV‐1), Finland (1985, EBLV‐2), the United Kingdom (2002, EBLV‐2) and France (2019, EBLV‐1).[27]
The main difference is that humans in Europe are highly unlikely to get bitten unless they go out of their way to fuck with bats. Meanwhile in SA vampire bats cause rabies outbreaks because they feed on people.
In the Americas. European bats are basically entirely rabies free, as are Australian bats. And even then, there are less than a double handful of human rabies cases in the US yearly due to bats.
That said, that double handful of people are all dead, and it hurt the entire time they were dying. Better a hundred needless treatments than one missed case, so if you suspect you may have a bat bite in the US, see a doctor.
I’m neither a biologist nor an epidemiologist, but
Did I at any point mention European or Australian bats, or any bat species that doesn’t feed on blood and is therefore highly likely to transmit rabies?
In parts of SA vampire bats are the most common rabies vector, and it’s relatively common to get bit. There’s an increasing number of cases due to habitat destruction
But since you want to talk about European bats
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_rabies
The main difference is that humans in Europe are highly unlikely to get bitten unless they go out of their way to fuck with bats. Meanwhile in SA vampire bats cause rabies outbreaks because they feed on people.