A B-C man has died of a rare viral rabies infection in B-C’s first such case since 2003. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says the man was in contact with a bat in mid-May and developed symptoms compatible with rabies six weeks later. She notes while the exposure in this case was on Vancouver Island, bats in all areas of B-C are known to carry rabies. Overall in Canada, there have been only 24 known cases of viral rabies infections since the 1920s, with the most recent case in Ontario in 2012.
