{"id":1398,"date":"2013-08-18T13:09:41","date_gmt":"2013-08-18T03:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1398"},"modified":"2013-07-30T19:24:27","modified_gmt":"2013-07-30T09:24:27","slug":"vaccinations-rise-following-lyssavirus-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1398","title":{"rendered":"Vaccinations rise following lyssavirus deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"There has been a sharp rise in the number of lyssavirus vaccinations following the death of an eight-year-old boy who succumbed to the virus.\r\nAlmost 300 people have sought the vaccination, up over 100 per cent on the same period last year.\r\nLincoln Flynn was scratched by a flying fox about two months before becoming ill.\r\nHealth experts have recommended that anyone who suspects they may have been scratched or bitten by a bat in the last few years to be vaccinated against the virus, which is similar to rabies.<!--more-->\r\nLincoln is the third confirmed case in Australia, with the other two cases occurring in the 1990s.\r\nJames Cook University researcher Lee Skerratt, has warned against the stirring of public sentiment to cull large numbers of bats and flying foxes.\r\n\u201cPeople argue there\u2019s an ecological consequence, that bats are really important for pollination and seed dispersal, but my job is to try and determine the factors that affect disease in populations and how to control them.\u201d\r\nSkerratt said culling of bat colonies will do nothing to eliminate diseases, and that it is a waste of resources and time.\r\n\u201cScare campaigns lead to fear and misdirection of resources, and demanding vaccination campaigns ties up public health resources when funding and attention is better directed towards bat carers to deal with sick and injured bats.\u201d\r\nThe three Australian fatalities were all likely bitten or scratched by an infected animal, and though there is speculation about rare aerosol transmissions, Skerratt said the chances are low.\r\n\u201cThere\u2019s uncertainty, but we\u2019re confident there\u2019s very low risk to no risk without being in direct contact with a bat that has the virus,\u201d he said.\r\n\u201cNot touching a bat is the equivalent of stopping smoking to reduce your risk of smoking illness.\u201d\r\nSkerratt said post exposure treatment is highly effective, and it is only when there is delayed post exposure treatment that allows the virus to disturb the nervous system.\r\n\u201cThe veterinary profession has a key role in helping the public understand how animal health overlaps with human and environmental health, so vets need to speak up about how best to control animal health issues,\u201d he said.\r\n\u201cWith something like Hendra virus, nobody says \u201clet\u2019s cull all the horses!\u201d; Vets would not advocate that, nor would they for bats.\u201d\r\nIn related news, Penshurst man Zdravko Kucinic has pleaded guilty to one charge of aggravated animal cruelty against a grey headed flying fox that was found buried in a back yard.\r\nIn January RSPCA inspectors investigated a report of a bat being beaten to death and buried.\r\nA netted fig tree and various wooden planks were observed in the backyard, and the inspectors uncovered the body of the flying fox in a garden bed.\r\nAn autopsy conducted at Taronga Wildlife Hospital revealed that the combination of lesions within the animal\u2019s body was consistent with acute traumatic injury.\r\nKucinic was interviewed by the RSPCA on February 5, and admitted to finding the flying fox entangled in the fig tree netting.\r\nAfter attempting to free the animal he said he believed the animal to be near death and he began to hit it with a stick.\r\nHe ceased hitting the animal when it stopped screeching and moving and proceeded to bury it.\r\nSAM WORRAD","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There has been a sharp rise in the number of lyssavirus vaccinations following the death of an eight-year-old boy who succumbed to the virus. Almost 300 people have sought the vaccination, up over 100 per cent on the same period last year. Lincoln Flynn was scratched by a flying fox about two months before becoming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,1194,439,477,1242,1243,1241,1240,98,134],"class_list":["post-1398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cruelty","tag-cull","tag-death","tag-ecology","tag-flying-fox","tag-illness","tag-lincoln-flynn","tag-lyssavirus","tag-vaccination","tag-virus"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":1,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":402,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":402,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"There has been a sharp rise in the number of lyssavirus vaccinations following the death of an eight-year-old boy who succumbed to the virus. Almost 300 people have sought the vaccination, up over 100 per cent on the same period last year. Lincoln Flynn was scratched by a flying fox about two months before becoming ill. Health experts have recommended..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"92":{"name":"cruelty","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=cruelty"},"1194":{"name":"cull","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=cull"},"439":{"name":"death","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=death"},"477":{"name":"ecology","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=ecology"},"1242":{"name":"flying fox","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=flying-fox"},"1243":{"name":"illness","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=illness"},"1241":{"name":"Lincoln Flynn","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=lincoln-flynn"},"1240":{"name":"Lyssavirus","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=lyssavirus"},"98":{"name":"vaccination","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=vaccination"},"134":{"name":"virus","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=virus"}},"comments_number":"1","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1398"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1414,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions\/1414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}