Mom Brings Dead Bat To Montana County School; Later Found To Have Rabies

October 8, 2008 7:12 a.m. EST

Stevensville, MT (AHN) - Health officials in a Montana county issued a health advisory after the mother of two elementary school student brought a dead bat into an elementary school for a demonstration and allowed about 90 students to touch it.

The mother reportedly found the dead bat in a cat's mouth, thought the bat was interesting, brought it into school and gave presentations on the bat in five classrooms, allowing students to touch the bat and giving them disinfectant wipes for their hands afterward.

However, the bat was later confirmed to have had rabies, which is a potentially fatal neurological virus. In that area rabies is common in bats and skunks. Rabies is prevalent in the United States, although it is rarely transmitted to humans.

But students who were exposed to the bat are being given rabies shots as a precaution. Standard treatment for people exposed to rabies takes almost a month and includes a series of five vaccinations and a shot of immunoglobulin.

County and state health department officials are investigating the incident.

Stevensville School officials are using liability insurance to pay for the rabies shots. After the incident, school officials instituted a policy of requiring all visitors to the school to have a visitor pass.