An Illinois man in his 80s died Monday of rabies after being bitten by a bat last month, the first human rabies case in the state in 75 years, according to US News & World Report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the cause of death.
The unnamed man woke up in the bedroom in his house in mid-August to find a bat on his neck. Animal control officers capture the bat, and it tested positive for rabies. They also found a colony of bats living in the house. At the time, the man declined prophylactic treatment for rabies. Later, he started developing symptoms of rabies.
Rabies attacks humans by short circuiting the nervous system, with patients having a severe headache and experiencing difficulty controlling their arms. In the United States, only 25 cases of humans having rabies were reported from 2009 to 2018. The country typically only sees one-to-three cases annually.