Displaced rabid bats kill 23

RABIES-CARRYING vampire bats fleeing deforestation of the Amazon region in Brazil have bitten more than 1,000 people, leaving 23 dead.

The victims were attacked during the past two months after the flying mammals were displaced from their rainforest habitat by continued widespread tree-felling, said Sao Paulo authorities.

The latest victim was 20-year-old Valnice Santos, who died of rabies after being bitten in her home in the northern town of Turiacu, said Henrique Jorge dos Santos, an epidemiologist with the Maranhao state health agency.

Last month, an infected colony of the blood-sucking bats invaded thousands of homes and killed 16 people living near marshlands in the town of Maranhao, 2,414 kilometres north of Sao Paulo, Mr Santos said.

Seven similar deaths occurred in three cities near Turiacu, suggesting the bats came from the neighbouring state of Para.

Deforestation in the heavily forested Para state is eliminating the bats’ habitat and forcing them to seek other areas.

Heath agencies have treated 1,350 people with anti-rabies medication in the past two months.

The state government is spraying the captured bats with poison, hoping they fly back to their colony and kill off the rabies-infected population.

Rabies outbreaks have occurred in Brazil every year since 1986, with the worst killing 73 in 1990, according to Brazilian Health Ministry records.

More than half of the rabies deaths recorded since 1986 happened in the Amazon states.

All the attacks took place at night in people’s homes, Mr Santos said. Many houses along the marshland do not have window screens and have large gaps in the floor and ceiling.

Vampire bats are found across Latin America and feed on the blood of warm-blooded animals such as birds, horses and cattle.