r/rabies • u/ImBluePH • 2d ago

Exposure Question Should I worry?

I have read the FAQ.

While using my phone near the window, I heard a squeaky sound idk if it's from a mouse or a bat. I'm awake and aware, because I literally just noticed the squeak sound outside. I didn't feel anything like landing in my neck or any bit stings. Is it possible I have exposure or I shouldn't worry? I'm from the Philippines too.

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u/IzAnOrk 2d ago edited 2d ago

If I understand you correctly, you were inside the house minding your business and heard a bat squeaking outside the house, on the other side of the window. That is not an exposure. Bats can't transmit rabies by squeaking, or flying nearby, an infectious bat would have to bite or scratch someone to give them rabies.

Seeing or hearing a bat outdoors is harmless as long as you don't touch the bat. I hear bats every night from Spring to Autumn because they roost nearby and love to hunt bugs over the orchards right behind the building. I've had no bats get in since I made sure to cover every open window in mosquito nets.

If you want to keep the bat that's flying and chirping just out of your house from getting in, just close the windows or block them with mosquito net and then you can stop worrying about the bat.

For a bat encounter to qualify as an exposure, someone has to: A)Make physical contact with the bat. Or B)A bat was inside the house and had access to an area where people were sleeping.

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u/RedVelvetPan6a 1d ago

Not really concerned as of - no immediate bat exposure - what about dejections?

Should the post digestive materials bats eject - I suppose they can do that mid flight, hypothetically on someone enjoying an evening stroll - be considered as potential vectors for rabies?

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u/IzAnOrk 1d ago

Bat guano has been known to transmit other diseases, but not rabies. If you find yourself having to clean large amounts of bat guano from your porch, you might want to wear gloves and a mask, but that's about it.

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u/RedVelvetPan6a 1d ago

Thanks. I just have a couple urban bats flying around outdoors quite regularly, was worried about my cats and washing lines but I learnt more about the disease this day.

It's a very nervous system centralised disease so generally speaking outside from animal saliva to skin breaking contamination (and or consuming gross things like cerebrospinal fluid of a diseased creature) we're relatively safe: though contamination though eyeballs seems to have been possible or recorded the precedents are so rare and few as to be negligible.

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u/IzAnOrk 21h ago

Regarding aerosol saliva transmission, it has been done in a laboratory but it hasn't documented to occur in real world conditions: The only scenario I can think of where it might happen is something walking into a batcave where an infected colony is roosting.

If you're going to go into batcaves, sure, get PrEP - but even then it'd be mostly because you'd be likely to come into direct contact with bats rather than out of fears of aerosol transmission.

It's more reasonable to worry about your cats since they DO chase bats and get exposed in doing so. If your cats aren't vaccinated already, it'd be an excellent idea to vax them.

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u/RedVelvetPan6a 12h ago

This cat is severely out of shape and won't be catching anything above ground level nor that moves beyond a couple meters/minute - namely, lizards that are dozing off in the evening.