![A bat native to southeastern Australia. This image is not directly related to the article. [Australian Museum]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/07/02/news-p.v1.20260702.9e2a1c50193a402c8be1f1ac38717184_P1.jpg)
A Canadian teenager's death from rabies after contact with a bat is drawing renewed attention to the dangers of the disease.
According to the New York Post, the Canadian Medical Association Journal recently published a case report detailing the death of a boy in northern Ontario in the summer of 2024.
The boy was staying at a cottage with his family when he woke to find a bat on his face and swatted it away. His father caught the bat in a pot and released it outside. Because the boy showed no visible wounds or unusual symptoms, his parents did not seek medical attention.
Nineteen days later, the boy developed facial paralysis, swelling and repeated vomiting and was rushed to a local emergency room. Antiviral medication was prescribed, but his condition deteriorated rapidly — facial paralysis, slurred speech, high fever, difficulty swallowing and hallucinations followed in quick succession. He was transferred to a pediatric intensive care unit within days and died 17 days after being admitted.
Emergency room doctors initially suspected Bell's palsy, a condition causing paralysis of muscles on one side of the face, but tests at the University of Manitoba confirmed the boy had been infected with a bat rabies virus variant. It was the first confirmed human rabies case in the region since 1967. Only 28 human rabies cases have been reported in Canada since 1924.
Dr. Brian Hummel, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, said rabies is "almost without exception fatal once symptoms appear, but almost without exception successful if vaccination is received before onset," and called for greater public awareness and understanding of the risks the disease poses.
bbo@heraldcorp.com
