Rabid bat lands on California restaurant table as family eats, prompting exposure warning - Yahoo

What the report says

Yahoo Entertainment reported that a family meal at the Yellow Deli Restaurant in Vista, California, became a public health matter after a bat flew into the restaurant and landed on the family’s table. Citing NBC San Diego, the report said the incident happened around 1 p.m. on Sunday, July 19, and that another diner used a towel to collect the bat and took it to the Humane Society in Oceanside.

According to the report, testing by the county public health laboratory later found the bat was infected with rabies. San Diego County health officials said by Thursday they had no reports of anyone directly touching the animal, but they were still attempting to contact the family seated at the table. Officials urged anyone who may have touched the bat or had close contact with it to seek medical advice promptly.

Emily Trumbull, a veterinarian with San Diego County’s Epidemiology Unit, told NBC San Diego that rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms appear if preventive treatment is not started beforehand. The report said possible exposure can include a bite or infected saliva reaching the eyes, nose, mouth or other mucous membranes. County officials were assessing whether anyone might need post-exposure prophylaxis.

The bat was the county’s 22nd rabies-positive bat of the year, though Trumbull said more encounters with bats do not necessarily prove that rabies is becoming more common among them. Officials reminded residents not to handle bats and to contact appropriate experts, noting that bats are protected wildlife and play an important ecological role.