Bat bite, rabies vaccine, anyone else with any experience?

[noxlumos]

Hi, big drama last night as my 13 year old son got bitten by a bat which had come into the lounge ( we have a lovely large colony in the roof) and was refusing to leave and swooping about scaring my daughter's little friend, so he caught it to put outside and it bit him, which in itself is no wound at all, however they can carry EBL European Bat Lyssavirus ( a form of rabies) so he had to travel 60 miles for some immunogloben and rabies anti-serum which he has to have injections of over the next month.
Now I am very aware that EBL is exceptionally unusual in British Bats ( one case here in the last forever) and he has had the recommended treatment very quickly, so we've done all that we can, however my paranoid father genes have set in and I'm fairly worried to death about him, as you can't fcuk about with rabies. Has anyone else on here ever been bitten by a bat ( I have myself but for some reason it's not helping me to be terribly rational) and had this treatment ( or not)? I have plenty of info about the likelihood etc, prevelance of the disease, but I'd really like to hear from someone else that has ever been bitten as I am quite worried. Thanks in advance.

[makemesmile]

Hi noxlumos - what a awful night you've had! You must have been out of your mind with worry!

Only info I can offer is that I do know of someone who was bitten by a bat (they have bats living in their roof - they're a protected species and are inspected by the 'bat man' annually) and after seeking medical attention, nothing developed.

I'm sure your son will be fine, and he'll be left with nothing more than an interesting story to tell xxx

[Lonnie]

Hi Nox, you've done everything you possibly can, and as a father, I can guess what your going through right now, I googled this, and as you say, only one Briton in memory has caught EBL. My thoughts are with you, your son and family, did they say how long to wait before the all clear?.

[noxlumos]

Hi thanks both. EBL is incredibly rare in bats here so chances are the bat that bit him did not carry it anyway and if the immunogloben is administered pretty much immediately (it was about 5 hours afterwards by the time the hospital had liased with experts all over the place) along with the Rabipur vaccine then I understand that there is very little chance of anything going awry even if the bat is an EBL carrier. He needs repeat injections at 3, 5, 7, 14 and 30 days though but depsite all that looking so positive I have to admit I am absolutely terrified that something will happen to him.It's totally irrational, and I'm hoping in years to come we'll laugh about it, but just now I'm more distressed than I've been in a long time.
Thank you both so much for your concern, I really appreciate it and I'm sure right and everything will be fine, but I'm just being a cringing neurotic mess about this.

[Cetti]

I've only just spotted your post noxlumos and read with horror what you all endured last night. Being a parent brings with it a strange paranoia, doesn't it, especially where your children are concerned, but you�ve done everything that�s humanly possible so trust your judgement and wait for the all clear!

Please don�t beat yourself up; you are behaving in a totally normal manner and not in any way irrational! Everything will be fine and you will look back some day and be enormously relieved - but not yet, a shock like this takes some time to heal. We will all be thinking of you.

[lankeela]

Here is a contact number for a lady who runs the West Yorkshire Bat Hospital, her name is Magggie Brown 01943 466101 she is a great source of information and will I am sure put your mind at rest.

[noxlumos]

Thank you all so much I do really appreciate the support, I'm not usually this crap at dealing with things and I'll certainly give Maggie a call and hopefully she will put my mind at rest. Thanks all so much.