Rabies cases pose public health threat across US

[struggle4progress]

Officials warn 75% of Americans live near raccoons, skunks and foxes that commonly spread the fatal disease
By Shiv Sudhakar Fox News
Published September 5, 2025 7:00am EDT

More wild animals are getting infected with rabies, which poses a public health threat, officials warn.

Around 75% of Americans are exposed to raccoons, skunks and foxes — the very wildlife that commonly spread the fatal disease to humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The latest report from the CDC’s National Rabies Surveillance System, which monitors rabies trends in the U.S., found that wildlife cases increased 5% in 2023 over the prior year.

"Currently, the CDC Rabies Program is tracking 15 rabies outbreak events," Paul Prince, a CDC spokesperson, told Fox News Digital. "There are likely many more rabies outbreaks across the U.S., but these are managed at the local or state level" ...

https://www.foxnews.com/health/deadly-rabies-cases-pose-public-health-threat-across-us-experts-warn

[mainer]

1. All vaccines are bad! Bad!

MAGAs, when you get bitten by a rabid bat, remember that!

[Irish_Dem]

2. RFK Jr must be so happy. A chance to see Americans killed with another deadly disease.

[Midnight Writer]

3. Right. I think it means those among us who survive RFK Jr's reign will be the strongest and fittest.

Then we can breed and build up a Master Race that will usher humanity into a Brave New World, without empathy, without mercy, without love, worshipping Mammon.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Yes we will become the Ferengi and The Borg rolled into one.

The only values are evil, corruption, greed.

Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.

[womanofthehills]

5. Most years one to two rabies deaths in humans

Past yr there were 5 or 6 - most involve being bitten by a bat.

70% of rabies cases are from bats.

When I was younger, we had a group of kids at a church campsite (huge old log cabin) with no electricity in the Sandia Mts. In the middle of the night the little girls were screaming- bats were flying over their heads. We marched them out to another cabin walking in the rain at 2 in the morning. I still have the image in my mind - when I pointed my flashlight to the ceiling corners -bats opening & closing their months.

The next year at that camp a man died from a bat bite.

Raccoons & foxes can also carry rabies. A raccoon one night came in my doggie door & was climbing the stairs up to my bedroom. Thank god for dogs.

[Irish_Dem]

6. When I was a kid, a bat got into our bedroom.

I shared it with three siblings at the time.

It spent the night in our room.
We found it hanging on a curtain in the morning.
We were lucky not to be bitten.

My point is that RFK Jr would like the death rate to rise for any disease.

[Peacetrain]

7. Hubby and I had to take the rabies series 5 years ago because of waking up with a bat flying around

the bedroom where we were visiting. Could not catch it. Apparently bat bites are so small you don't even notice them so our health dept told us to come in and get the shots .. We were told our rabies vaccinations will be good for 10 years.. so we have five more years of protection.

[Irish_Dem]

8. Treatment was not even considered so many years ago.

Luckily none of us had rabies.

[Irish_Dem]

9. Glad you guys did not get sick.

[Peacetrain]

13. I did not want to take them at first until the situation was explained to us.. about

the bite size of the bats, and how it was almost impossible to determine a bite.. and I had all these fears of the shots... I remember being told they were given over the course of a month in the stomach when I was a kid.. It was actually three weeks and only 4 shots.. the shingles shot was 10 times more painful..

[Initech]

14. This man is a psychopath who should be in a maximum security mental hospital.

[Irish_Dem]

17. Yes in a decent society he would locked up for public safety.

[LeftInTX]

10. From a link in the article: Patient dies from rabies after organ transplant from infected donor

A Michigan resident has died of rabies after receiving an organ transplant.

The patient, who received the transplant at an Ohio hospital in December 2024, died of the fatal virus in January 2025, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) confirmed to Fox News Digital.

"The person was a recent organ transplant recipient, and a public health investigation determined they contracted rabies through the transplanted organ," the spokesperson said.

"There is currently no country or institution that requires the screening of rabies among donors before organ transplantation surgery," according to information published by the National Institutes of Health.

https://www.foxnews.com/health/patient-dies-rabies-organ-transplant-infected-donor

[neverforget]

11. Does Ivermectin cure rabies like it did Covid? MAGA, probably

[NickB79]

12. My grandmother was attacked by a rabid skunk in Minnesota 3 yr ago

She was working in her flower garden when it charged her and literally climbed her leg, scratching her badly. My grandfather drove her to the hospital. She needed stitches and rabies shots. My grandfather tried to find and shoot the skunk, but never saw it again.

Thank God for vaccines.

[LisaL]

16. I had rabies vaccine as a child after I was bitten by a dog.

NT

[LisaL]

15. Time for RFKjr to ban

rabies vaccine.

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. There are anti-vaxxers who don't vaccinate their dogs and cats

The thing is, the only way to determine if an animal has rabies is to examine its brain. So if their unvaxxed animal bites someone, they have to be euthanized and have their skull opened up.