Wyoming school's "pet" bat has rabies
Posted: May 18, 2007 8:13 amTwo at school treated for possible exposure to rabid bat
By JARED MILLER
Casper Star-Tribune
CHEYENNE - Two staff members at a private Riverton school are being treated for possible rabies exposure after a bat kept as a classroom pet tested positive for the potentially deadly disease.
State and county health officials on Tuesday interviewed all 95 staff members and students at Trinity Lutheran School to determine the level of contact with the animal.
They opted to treat a teacher and a teaching assistant who had a "high risk for exposure," said Marty Stensaas, county manager for Fremont County Public Health Nursing.
State health officials, including state epidemiologist Dr. Tracy Murphy, planned to meet Wednesday night with parents and school staff members to address questions and make recommendations about possible additional preventive measures. Several doses of rabies vaccine were rushed to Riverton Memorial Hospital in the event that parents opt to have their children receive the lengthy and expensive series of shots, Stensaas said.
"You just have to be careful any time there is a possible rabies exposure because it can be a deadly disease in humans," Stensaas said.
A staff member on May 9 discovered the bat in the school basement, where it was captured and stored in a cage in Steve Coniglio's seventh- and eighth-grade classroom.
It was also displayed in other classrooms, and students fed it crickets through the cage. No one is believed to have touched the bat directly, head teacher Susan Tucker said.
Full story:
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles ... -rabid.txt
By JARED MILLER
Casper Star-Tribune
CHEYENNE - Two staff members at a private Riverton school are being treated for possible rabies exposure after a bat kept as a classroom pet tested positive for the potentially deadly disease.
State and county health officials on Tuesday interviewed all 95 staff members and students at Trinity Lutheran School to determine the level of contact with the animal.
They opted to treat a teacher and a teaching assistant who had a "high risk for exposure," said Marty Stensaas, county manager for Fremont County Public Health Nursing.
State health officials, including state epidemiologist Dr. Tracy Murphy, planned to meet Wednesday night with parents and school staff members to address questions and make recommendations about possible additional preventive measures. Several doses of rabies vaccine were rushed to Riverton Memorial Hospital in the event that parents opt to have their children receive the lengthy and expensive series of shots, Stensaas said.
"You just have to be careful any time there is a possible rabies exposure because it can be a deadly disease in humans," Stensaas said.
A staff member on May 9 discovered the bat in the school basement, where it was captured and stored in a cage in Steve Coniglio's seventh- and eighth-grade classroom.
It was also displayed in other classrooms, and students fed it crickets through the cage. No one is believed to have touched the bat directly, head teacher Susan Tucker said.
Full story:
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles ... -rabid.txt
Sounds like someones going to need some 
