Australian woman fears she may have contracted the deadly virus after being bitten on the head by a bat while on holiday in the city of Cairns. Queensland in the north-east of the country, with her husband.
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“I didn’t want to believe that a bat had bitten me,” Sandi Galloway, horrified by the attack, told local Australian newspaper the Cairns Post.
Sandi Galloway and her husband screenshot, Facebook
She was bitten by a Philippian Flying Fox, a red-headed bat. This large species can reach a height of up to 1.50 meters.
Photo AFP
These bats carry Lyssavirus disease, which attacks the nervous system and has a 100% mortality rate in Australia.
A sneak attack
The couple were quietly returning to their hotel around 11pm after having coffee with friends when they allegedly suddenly felt something hitting near them.
“I felt something fly over my head,” she explained, referring to “Dracula.”
Since the woman was partially blind, Galloway raised his hand to prevent the unknown creature from landing on her. Then she felt a stinging sensation on her forehead, “like a pin.”
AFP
As her partner watched the scene, she initially refused to accept that she had been bitten by a bat, despite being told what had happened.
She even became convinced that it was “probably a spider” and had difficulty admitting the facts.
Subtle symptoms, serious consequences
Ms Galloway showed no symptoms other than fatigue and loss of appetite and forgot about the ordeal until she got home and spoke to her daughter.
“I didn’t want to look stupid going to the doctor about a bite because I thought it doesn’t happen in real life,” said the woman, who is also a grandmother.
Screenshot, Facebook
“But I talked to my daughter about it and she told me I could get rabies and die.”
Galloway was referred by her doctor to an infectious disease expert because the bat could transmit the lyssavirus. He sent him vaccines by plane from Canberra.
AFP
She received five injections on Wednesday and will receive three more in the next few weeks.
In light of this ordeal, she is calling on the local government to relocate the Flying Foxes from the city of Cairns to a less populated area.