Woman Dies of Rabies

Haitian Street Dog resting in an area still destroyed by the Earthquake in 2010.

A 73-year-old woman was bitten by a rabid dog in Haiti and then came to the US to visit family. While visiting her family the disease ran its course and the woman died at the hospital on Wednesday. At this point they are trying to determine if any of her family or friends that she visited with could have contracted the disease or if hospital workers are at risk. Transmission from human to human can only occur through contact with an infected patient’s saliva into an open cut or wound.

Transmission of rabies from a patient to a health care worker has never been documented in this country, according to New Jersey’s State Public Health Veterinarian Faye Sorhage.

Health officials say they believe the woman was infected in Haiti in April, and developed neurological symptoms while visiting her relatives in New Jersey on June 25. She was admitted to the Hospital on July 2 by Monday after extensive testing and ruling out other issues the Center for Disease Control and Prevention was called in to confirmed on Monday that the woman was in fact infected with rabies. When not detected and treated early, rabies can cause encephalitis—or infection in the brain—and cause death.