What to do if bitten by a bat

In life, many people are bitten by bats accidentally. In fact, the probability of being bitten by a bat is relatively low. Being bitten by a bat is the same as being bitten by a dog. The patient not only needs to disinfect the wound, but also needs to get some tetanus or rabies vaccine, otherwise he may be infected with some animal diseases. So what should you do after being bitten by a bat?

1. Wash the bitten area with soap and water;

2. If the skin is broken, use pressure to stop the bleeding;

3. Try to find out whether the bat has rabies. The only way to know if an animal has rabies is to find the virus in the brain after the animal dies. A live bat infected with rabies has some common behaviors that can be observed. They may appear to be docile and would not flee from humans even on a rabid night. Conversely, if a bat is acting very angry and aggressively without provocation, it is likely carrying a disease. In some cases, the animal will have excessive saliva and foam in the mouth. So regardless of whether the bat that bit you has rabies or not, the best thing to do is to go to the hospital for treatment;

4. People who have been vaccinated against rabies will need to receive two injections of the vaccine into the muscles around the wound, while people who have not been vaccinated will need to inject human rabies immunoglobulin antibodies into the wound and must receive 5 injections of the vaccine.

All that being said, remember that rabies is not just a dog disease! All warm-blooded animals (cats, dogs, mice) have the potential to carry rabies. So once you are bitten, please don't take any chances. Get the rabies vaccine immediately to save your life!