Rabid Kitten Prompts Contacts Search, Texas, USA

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses;  Veterinary
Article Date: 28 Nov 2008 - 0:00 PST

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The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and local officials are trying to locate anyone who may have come in contact with a rabid kitten near a convenience store located about 10 miles south of Waco on Highway 77.

DSHS, the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District and other local authorities are looking for anyone who had contact with the kitten from Nov. 2 to Nov. 13 near Pina's Country Store and Café, 3865 S. Robinson Drive, Lorena.

The kitten was a 2- to 3-month-old orange tabby male that stayed near the store.

People who suspect they had contact with the infected kitten should talk to a physician to determine if their exposures warrant a series of rabies-prevention shots.

The rabies virus most often is transmitted to humans through animal bites, but transmission can occur in other ways that allow the saliva of an infected animal to get inside the body of a person through open cuts, scratches or wounds or through mucous membranes in the mouth, eyes or nose.

Post-exposure shots can keep rabies from developing if given in time. Once symptoms of rabies occur in humans, rabies is almost always fatal.

For more information call the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District at (254) 750-5411.

Texas Dept. of State Health Services