Human rabies: a reemerging disease in Costa Rica?
Two human rabies cases caused by a bat-associated virus variant were identified in September 2001 in Costa Rica, after a 31-year absence of the disease in humans. Both patients lived in a rural area where cattle had a high risk for bat bites, but neither person had a definitive history of being bitten by a rabid animal. Characterization of the rabies viruses from the patients showed that the reservoir was the hematophagous Vampire Bat, Desmodus rotundus, and that a sick cat was the vector.
Badilla
Xiomara
X
Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), San José, Costa Rica. xbadilla@ccss.sa.cr
Pérez-Herra
Victor
V
Quirós
Ligia
L
Morice
Ana
A
Jiménez
Edwin
E
Sáenz
Elizabeth
E
Salazar
Fernando
F
Fernández
Rodrigo
R
Orciari
Lillian
L
Yager
Pamela
P
Whitfield
Sylvia
S
Rupprecht
Charles E
CE
D000818:Animals; D001733:Bites and Stings; D002415:Cats; D002417:Cattle; D002648:Child; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology; D021821:Communicable Diseases, Emerging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000821:virology*; D003364:Costa Rica / Q000453:epidemiology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004285:Dogs; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D011818:Rabies / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000635:transmission; D011820:Rabies virus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012307:Risk Factors; D015047:Zoonoses