Lack of rabies vaccine poses health concern

By William K. Alcorn

Parents should caution their children to not touch wild animals.

YOUNGSTOWN — The shortage and high cost of the vaccine given to people exposed to rabies has county public health officials urging residents to refrain from handling wild animals and learn what to do if they are scratched or bitten by a pet.

The shortage of vaccine has a two-fold cause, said Dr. John Venglarcik, Mahoning County District Health Department medical director and an infectious disease specialist.

First, there was a delay in production of the vaccine, which caused the Ohio Department of Health to require county health departments to obtain ODH permission before they could get the vaccine.

At this point, the supply is limited to use only when absolutely necessary. Also, administering pre-exposure vaccine, which is given to veterinarians and others who routinely handle animals, is being restricted, he said.

The second reason for the shortage of post-exposure vaccine is that health departments have had to dispense the vaccine in situations where it might not have been necessary if people had been better informed, Venglarcik said.

He said there have been several cases this year in Mahoning County. These resulted in people receiving the post-exposure series of shots, which might not have been necessary if people were more careful or better informed about what to do when they fear exposure.

For example, in the spring, two young boys came across a dead or dying bat in the Yellow Creek area around Lake Hamilton in Struthers and had contact with it. Bats carry rabies, and because the bat was unavailable for testing, the vaccine had to be administered along with a rabies immune globulin, all of which cost several thousand dollars and tapped into an already short supply of vaccine, he said.

The point, said Venglarcik, is that parents should caution their children to not touch wild animals, especially bats, raccoons and skunks, which are known to be rabies carriers.

Likewise, he urged people to not destroy pets that bite someone because they are afraid of rabies.

For example, in September a pet dog in Austintown bit a visitor and the owner killed the dog and buried it. The problem, Venglarcik said, is that burying the dog made it impossible to test it for rabies and made it necessary to administer the rabies vaccine to the person who was bitten.

Normally, if a pet is involved in an unprovoked bite, all the owner needs do is keep the animal under control and isolated for 10 days and watch for symptoms. If there are no symptoms, it does not have rabies. If people are uncomfortable doing that themselves, then they can call Angels for Animals, the Humane Society or the county dog warden who will keep the dog for 10 days and then return it if it is healthy, he said.

If the animal is wild, he urged people to not try to capture it, but to call the police or dog warden. Also, Venglarcik said animals should not be shot in the head because it’s the brain that is needed to test for rabies.

Venglarcik said rabies symptoms come in two categories:

The “furious form” is when the animal becomes aggressive, growls, snarls and foams at the mouth and may exhibit unusual movements.

The dumb or “paralytic form” is when the animal becomes very docile, almost comatose, lies around and won’t eat or drink.

alcorn@vindy.com