When 43-year-old Bradford resident Lori Carmichael woke up with two pin prick marks on the top of her forehead on May 25, she thought it was a little strange but didn’t think much of it.
“[I] thought it was weird enough to take a photo and get a better look, showed a friend, [and] chalked it up to a bug bite,” she explained.
Two nights later, she woke up at 4 a.m. to a scratching sound of a bat flying around her bedroom.
She said she remembered seeing something in her room on the Wednesday night before bed. “I thought I saw something over by my curtains,” but assumed it was a shadow of something outside her window.
"I immediately jumped out of bed screaming,” she remembers.
She contacted her property manager the next day to help her find the bat. They searched the whole house, but it was no where to be found. She assumed it had eventually made its way out of the house, until Friday May 29 at around 11 p.m. she saw the bat flying around her bedroom again.
Immediately she started Googling ‘bats in the house' where she stumbled upon articles suggesting anyone with a bat in their room should assume they have been bitten and get a rabies vaccine right away.
That’s when she remembered the two pin prick marks on her head.
“I thought, ‘only my head sticks out at night time’ and then the horror set in when I remembered the marks,” she described.
She rushed to the hospital at around 1 a.m. after realizing she was probably bitten by the bat five days earlier.
“The ER doctor told me that because it bit me unprovoked, that it likely was [rabid],” she said, and that she would need the rabies shots.
According to the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, being bitten by a bat with rabies is rare, but it is possible to be exposed to the virus through a bite or scratch.
The last human case of rabies in Ontario was in 2012, and exposure had taken place outside of the country. And the last time someone died locally from rabies was in 1967.
Once a person comes into contact with an animal suspected of having rabies, they must receive a series of injections known as post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).
It is recommended to receive a rabies immune globulin injection as well as a rabies vaccine with four additional rabies vaccine injections over the course of four weeks after exposure.
It was early Saturday morning before Carmichael received treatment because public health needed to be called in and the on-call pharmacist had to bring the vaccine and immune globulin. Carmichael received all four necessary rabies shots at intervals from a walk-in clinic.
A few days after her hospital visit, Carmichael had a pest control company come in and install a special one way door to ensure the bats are not able to enter the home anymore.
She said she was lucky to have them installed when she did, because after June 1 pest companies won’t install them since it is baby season for bats.
Symptoms of rabies include numbness around the bite or scratch, fever, headache, muscle spasms and a fear of water. According to the CDC, on average it can take anywhere from 20-60 days for symptoms of rabies to show.
Dr. Celeste Loewe with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit says it is best to avoid contact with wildlife, and to speak to a medical professional immediately if you think you may have been exposed to the virus.
“It is generally understood before any symptoms show it’s never too late to get the vaccine or the immune globulin,” said Loewe.
"There’s really no time limit on our end when to administer the vaccine and immune globulin," she said, noting some people have come in months after they have been exposed to receive their shots.
Carmichael says she has been experiencing a dull headache for the past six weeks, and a mild sore throat on and off for the past 10 days.
“It could be anxiety or psychosomatic, but I really don’t know,” she said. “The anxiety is unbelievable.”
“I was pretty freaked out about the whole thing,” she said.
To make matters worse, Carmichael has a boyfriend who lives in Michigan. Due to border closures between Canada and the U.S.A. she has not seen him since March 15.
“[He] can’t be here to support me,” she explained.
Carmichael hasn't seen the bat since, but is still on edge about the incident. Had she never seen the bat, she may not have even known she had been exposed.
"It's been hard not to think about the possibility [of having rabies]," she said.
According to the federal government, 25 people have died in Canada from rabies since 1924, including a 21-year-old man from B.C. who died last year after coming into contact with a bat. He started presenting symptoms six weeks later and died shortly after.
In Ontario, strains of the rabies virus are most commonly found in foxes, raccoons and bats. In order to confirm if an animal has rabies is to test the brain.
"And the only way to test it is to get the head, and generally at that time the animal is dead," said Loewe.
Carmichael wanted to share her story and raise awareness for those who may not be aware that they need to seek medical attention if they come into contact with a bat, or any other wildlife with the potential of carrying the rabies virus.
“Most people know they’ve been bit, but a lot of people don’t even have a mark on them,” Carmichael said, noting the bat's teeth and claws are very small and like herself, didn't even realize she had been in contact with the animal.
“It’s important to remember the risk for rabies in Simcoe Muskoka is very low,” said Loewe, noting in the past two years, there have been no animals testing positive for rabies.
Loewe says the best way to protect yourself and your family from rabies, is to make sure any domestic pets are vaccinated against rabies. “That is one way to help prevent rabies cases in humans, because if your animal can’t get rabies, even if they bite someone they wouldn’t be able to infect someone with the rabies virus.”
She also advises to reduce interactions with wildlife as much as possible, and not to feed them so they don’t become accustomed to humans. One telltale sign an animal has rabies is they lack of fear to humans.
“If someone got a bite or scratch from a wild animal they should clean the wound and seek medical attention immediately and report it to our health unit,” said Loewe.
If you feel you have been exposed, seek medical attention immediately and contact your local public health unit.
