A lifeless raccoon with porcupine quills embedded in it has examined optimistic for rabies, in response to Division of Public Health officers who’re urging residents to hunt medical care in the event that they dealt with the animal.
The lifeless rabid raccoon was discovered on Smith Lane in Eastham on Nov. 17, DPH reported. The raccoon is well recognized due to the big variety of porcupine quills embedded in it.
“Anyone who may have interacted with this racoon should immediately reach out to DPH or the Eastham Department of Health and Environment to ensure their health and safety,” State Epidemiologist Catherine Brown mentioned in a press release.
“Given the fatal nature of rabies, we want to be sure that any affected residents have access to post-exposure prophylaxis to protect themselves,” Brown added.
The raccoon was collected by the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s Cape Cod Rabies Program and submitted to the CDC for testing. The animal was reported to be optimistic for rabies on Wednesday.
Rabies is a deadly however preventable illness attributable to a virus. The virus is carried within the saliva of contaminated animals, and will be unfold to folks and different animals by a chew, or when saliva is launched into an open wound or the eyes, nostril or mouth.
Following an publicity, folks ought to obtain medical care consisting of wound care and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to forestall growth of illness.
PEP consists of a dose of rabies immune globulin, and a collection of 4 or 5 rabies vaccines over a two-week interval. PEP is very efficient at stopping illness when it’s administered promptly following an publicity.
The animals which can be almost certainly to be discovered contaminated with rabies in Massachusetts are raccoons, bats, skunks, foxes and woodchucks (groundhogs). Cats are the home animal most continuously discovered to be rabid attributable to decrease vaccination charges as in comparison with canines.
Among the methods that you could assist defend your self, your family members and your pets embrace:
- Educate kids by no means to strategy animals they don’t know – even when they seem pleasant.
- Report any animal that behaves oddly to your native animal management official.
- Take pleasure in wild animals from a distance. Don’t preserve wild animals as pets. That is in opposition to the legislation in Massachusetts.
- Be certain that your pets are vaccinated in opposition to rabies. By legislation, all canines, cats, and ferrets should be repeatedly vaccinated in opposition to rabies.
- Don’t go away meals or water to your pets exterior. Even empty bowls will appeal to wild and stray animals.
- Don’t let pets roam freely. Maintain them in a fenced yard or on a leash.
- Maintain your rubbish securely coated. Open rubbish will appeal to wild or stray animals.
- Maintain your chimney capped and restore holes in attics, cellars, and porches to assist preserve wild animals like bats and raccoons out of your own home.
DPH is asking that anybody who had contact with the rabid raccoon to contact its Division of Epidemiology at 617-983-6800 – obtainable 24/7 – for a danger evaluation to find out if an publicity to rabies virus occurred.
