An 11-year-old boy tragically died from rabies after a bat landed on his face while he was sleeping at a cottage in northern Ontario in the summer of 2024. The case was published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) on Monday, June 29, 2026, to help prevent future tragedies.
Because there were no visible bites or scratches, the family did not immediately seek medical care. However, 19 days after the incident, the boy developed symptoms including vomiting, facial tingling, and numbness, and he subsequently passed away.
Dr. Brian Hummel, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, told CBC that symptomatic rabies is near-universally fatal but entirely preventable. He noted that while the disease is extraordinarily rare—with only 28 cases reported in Canada since 1924—awareness is vital as summer encounters peak.
Public health authorities and the CDC emphasize that any direct contact with a bat requires immediate medical attention. Seeking Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP)—a series of vaccines and antibodies—before symptoms develop is near-universally successful at stopping the infection.
