A child has died of rabies after a bat was found in their bedroom, according to reports.
The BBC said health officials in the Canadian province of Ontario said the child was taken to hospital shortly after the incident in September but did not get a rabies vaccine as there were no signs of bites or scratches.
Dr Malcolm Lock of the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit told councillors the unnamed child, whose age was not given, lived near Sudbury and “woke up with a bat in their bedroom”.
Rabies can be spread to humans from an infected animal - including bats, foxes or raccoons - through saliva.
The World Health Organisation said the disease, which damages the brain and spinal cord, is almost always fatal once symptoms appear.
Dr Lock said the percentage of bats with rabies in his area has gone up from from less than 10% to 16% recently .
He said: “It's extremely important that anyone who has a form of exposure [to bats] seeks medical attention”.
According to Health Canada, there have been 28 rabies cases since 1924 and all have been fatal.
There have been 26 cases in the UK since 1946, all of which were people infected outside the UK.
The latest documented case was 2018 involving a traveller bitten by a cat in Morocco.
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