OK, I didn’t see this firsthand, but here goes:
At a get-together last night, one person mentioned having seen a program on Discover Health in which a woman had been bitten by a bat, which infected her with herpes (specifically herpes simplex), which spread throughout her body causing sores, and ultimately killing her.
Those were the points I heard, and I did verify them. But never having seen the problem, I can’t say that that’s what the program said.
Anyone with any insight on this story???
Herpes viruses are usually species specific (Cows don’t get horse herpes viruses, horses don’t get cow herpes viruses, etc.) and are not considered zoonotic diseases (i.e. you can’t get them from animals).
RABIES on the other hand, is zoonotic, you do get it from bats, and will kill you. Are you sure she didn’t mean rabies?
Definitely herpes simplex. She even followed up, “the kind that causes cold sores.”
Still doesn’t mean that’s what was in the program–only what she said she heard.
Here is an article about a Herpes B death due to handling a rhesus monkey. The article also provides more info about Herpes B being common in monkeys but occasionally transmitted to humans.
The “Herpes family” of viruses is quite broad. It includes cowpox, which obviously infect cattle but is best known as the original source of a vaccine for smallpox. Smallpox itself is thought to have originated from horses or cattle and jumped to humans.
I.e., there is some species-jumping possible.
But looking around, I don’t readily see any type that infects bats. So I’d go with the rabies misunderstanding thesis.
Herpes Simplex Encephalitis?
[
](Herpes Simplex Encephalitis: Practice Essentials, Background, Pathophysiology)
CMC fnord!
OK, I think I might have pieced this together:
The woman probably already had herpes simplex.
She was bitten on the lip (so the speaker said).
That triggered a herpes reaction. (As a long-time cold-sore sufferer, I know that any number of traumas can trigger an outbreak).
That herpes reaction probably “went bad,” possible resulting in aforementioned herpes encephalitis.
That makes a little more sense that her dying from bat-induced herpes.