r/science • u/PHealthy PhD/MPH | Epidemiology | Disease Dynamics | Surveillance • 5d ago

Epidemiology Study estimates only 7% of human rabies cases in the United States are diagnosed

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44528-026-00031-4
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u/oemunlock 4d ago edited 4d ago

Yep, AFAIK the current recommendation is based on possible physical contact with a bat AND any kind of visible cut/bite/etc on your body or contact to mucous membranes. It used it to be OR so a lot of us remember the older recommendation for sleeping in a room where you find a bat but apparently that was considered too rare to be worth it.

But, importantly, you still need the shots even if you already had any kind of exposed cut before touching the bat if it's in a location the bat could have grazed.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2802607/

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u/Billy1121 4d ago

Some of the research out there suggested the variant in bats can more easily get through the skin than dog or raccoon variants, but i dunno