Rabies: Unseen Danger
Boy Dies from Rabies After Unnoticed Bat Encounter, Prompting Health Warnings
An 11-year-old boy from Ontario died from rabies in the fall of 2024 after waking up to find a bat on his nose and mouth during a family cottage trip. His parents saw no bite marks and did not seek medical help — a decision that proved fatal, according to a June 2026 report in CMAJ.
The child died 17 days after being admitted to McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton. It was the first locally acquired human rabies case in Ontario since 1967, Public Health Ontario confirmed. Rabies, once symptoms appear, is nearly always fatal.
A Bat on His Face and a Fatal Missed Warning
The boy was staying at a cottage in the Gowganda area of northern Ontario when he woke up with a bat on his face. His father caught the bat in a cooking pot and let it go outside. The bat had not acted aggressively. There were no visible marks on the boy's skin. So the family went on with their trip, Global News reported.
This was a critical mistake, but an understandable one. Bat teeth are tiny. Their bites often leave no mark. The virus can also pass through mucous membranes — the eyes, nose, and mouth — without any puncture wound at all, according to CMAJ. Public health experts say the simple act of a bat landing on a sleeping person is enough to warrant immediate medical attention.
Misdiagnosed as Bell's Palsy Before Rabies Was Suspected
Nineteen days after the bat contact, the boy began feeling tingling and numbness on the right side of his face. His appetite dropped. His face swelled. A local urgent care clinic diagnosed him with Bell's palsy — a kind of facial paralysis — and gave him antiviral medication, according to CMAJ.
He got worse fast. He developed a fever, trouble swallowing, confusion, and visual hallucinations. When he returned to the emergency room, doctors eventually ran a PCR test — a virus-detection test — on day four of his hospital stay. It came back positive for rabies. By day five, he had lost reflexes in his brain stem. He died on day 17, CP24 reported.
Why Experts Say Any Bat Contact Requires a Vaccine
Rabies kills nearly 100% of people who develop symptoms. But it is almost completely preventable with a Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) vaccine — a series of shots given before symptoms start. In Ontario, PEP is free. "If you get the prevention before symptoms develop, it is near universally successful," said Dr. Brian Hummel of McMaster Children's Hospital, who co-authored the CMAJ report.
Human rabies is rare in Canada — only 28 cases have been recorded since 1924, Canada.ca shows. But the risk from bats is growing. In 2024, 16% of bats tested in parts of Ontario came back positive for rabies, up from under 10% in prior years, according to Dr. Malcolm Lock, Medical Officer of Health for the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit. He told CityNews Toronto: "That child is now deceased" because the family did not get a vaccine after the bat encounter.
Family Shares Story to Prevent Another Child's Death
The boy's parents agreed to let doctors publish the case in the CMAJ so other families could learn from it. The report is now considered a key guide for Canadian doctors. Its core message: any direct contact between a person and a bat — even with no visible bite — is a medical emergency requiring PEP, Science Alert noted.
After the boy's death, demand for the vaccine surged. Waterloo Region reported an 18% jump in PEP treatments in 2025. Experts now say cottage-goers and campers in northern Ontario are a high-risk group. The warning is simple: if a bat is in your room while you sleep, call public health immediately — even if you feel fine and see no marks.
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