Stanton Elementary School, closed almost three weeks because of bat infestation, is scheduled to reopen Wednesday

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Stanton Elementary in Powell County will reopen this week after being closed for almost three weeks because of a bat infestation, school officials said Monday.

"They are moving everything back into the building today," Arliss Crowe, secretary to the district's director of pupil personnel, told Kentucky Health News on Monday. "Students will be back in the school on Wednesday." Schools in the county were dismissed Monday and Tuesday while crews moved furniture serving students who were moved to alternate facilities.

The state Department for Public Health closed the school Nov. 14 after bats were reported frequently entering the building, county School Supt. Mike Tate told The Clay City Times. An animal-removal company found three to five bats initially and did not see any more after they began their work, he said.

The company completed its work last week and told the school system to monitor the building for a week and if no bats are sighted it "could be safe to move back in," Tate told the weekly newspaper.

Tate told the weekly newspaper that he met with state health officials Friday, Nov. 29, to determine what needed to happen next. "We want to be careful and not act too quickly," he said then. "We want to get back, but we want to make sure the school is safe." (Read more)

Increased contact with bats leads to more rabies vaccinations in N. Ky.; health officials say all encounters should be reported

Fruit bat roosting in a home

Northern Kentucky health officials are warning residents to be more wary of bats after an unusually high number of residents have made contact with bats inside their homes and have had to receive the rabies vaccine. They are asking them to report any encounter with bats to the health department.

Bats are commonly infected with rabies and have very small teeth, and so someone who wakes up with a bat in their bedroom might not realize it has bitten them, Northern Kentucky Health Department spokeswoman Emily Gresham-Werle told Brenna Kelly of The Kentucky Inquirer.

It is crucial to vaccinate against rabies after contact with a bat, if the bat cannot be captured to receive testing for rabies. "If someone is exposed to the rabies virus and not treated, the result is neurological disease and death," Kelly notes.

Each year, tens of thousands of people are successfully protected from developing rabies through vaccination after being bitten by an animal like a bat that may have rabies, says the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. "There are usually only one or two human rabies cases each year in the United States, and the most common way for people to get rabies in the United States is through contact with a bat," says the CDC. Some of these reported cases resulted from known encounters with bats.

The problem In Northern Kentucky may be due to development in the area that has caused bats to lose their natural habitat. So far this year, 13 people who were exposed to bats have decided to get the vaccine. Usually only two to three people a year in the area have to get the vaccine because of a bat, Gresham-Wherle said. "Local and state health officials speculate that the weather and loss of bat habitat have contributed to the high number," reports Kelly.

"The rabies vaccine, which is nearly 100 percent effective against the virus, involves four rabies shots and one antibody shot over a period of two weeks. The vaccine, which is given by shots in the arm, can also be expensive, with costs ranging from $2,000 to $6,000 for the series, with additional fees for doctors or emergency room visits," Gresham-Werle told Kelly.

All exposure to bats and all bites by mammals must be reported to the local health department. In some instances the animal may be captured for rabies testing so that the bitten individual will not need to be vaccinated against the deadly disease. You can't tell if an animal carries the rabies virus just by looking at it, because rabies can only be confirmed in a laboratory, warns the CDC.