A bat fell onto the face of an 11-year-old boy while he was sleeping in a cabin north of Ontario, Canada, in 2024. He swatted it away, his father caught it with a pot and released it outside. There were no bite marks, the animal was not acting strangely, so no one thought of going to a hospital.
Nineteen days later, the tingling in his face began. Then the swelling, the loss of appetite, the difficulty swallowing. A clinic treated him for herpes. A hospital sent him home with the same diagnosis. Only on the third visit, when he was already hallucinating and needed a ventilator, did doctors suspect what was really happening.
The PCR test confirmed it on the fourth day in intensive care: rabies, a bat-transmitted variant. The boy died seventeen days after being admitted. By the time symptoms appear, the disease is no longer curable.