Potentially transmitted by a bat, a man dies of rabies in Guyana: a first in 16 years

La rage est toujours responsable aujourd’hui de dizaines de milliers de décès humains chaque année dans le monde. MAXPPP – Chameleons Eye

Trois patients sont morts à l’hôpital de Cayenne, dont au moins un était infecté par la rage, ont indiqué les autorités régionales, ce jeudi 28 mars 2024. C’est le premier cas enregistré depuis 2008 en Guyane.

16 years since this happened. Three patients died at the Cayenne hospital, at least one of whom was infected with rabies, the first documented case in sixteen years, the prefecture and the prefecture indicated this Thursday, March 28, 2024. rsquo;ARS of Guyana.

Rabies responsible for many deaths

The three patients had been admitted to the intensive care unit between February 17 and March 1, 2024, "coming from the site d’gold panning d’Eau Claire" , in southern Guyana.

"Patients died on average within 10 days of their admission", specifies the press release published by the & rsquo;ARS. Analyzes are still underway to determine the causes of the death of the two other people.

Specialists have embarked on a long series of analyzes to understand the origin of these deaths. Rabies is still responsible today for tens of thousands of human deaths each year worldwide.

The mode of contamination remains unknown at this stage, said Anne Lavergne, head of the virus and host interactions laboratory at the Pasteur Institute.

A first in 16 years

In France, on metropolitan territory, no case of human rabies has been reported since 1924. But in 2008, a human case was recorded in Guyana, recalled Anne Lavergne  head of the virus/host interactions laboratory at the Pasteur Institute.

"The main reservoir of rabies in South America is the vampire bats Desmodus rotundus", she explained to AFP, quoted by Le Figaro."It is possible that an entire colony of bats was infected over a short period of time, leading to a higher probability of encounters on a localized human population", she added.

The infectious disease is lethal for all species, including humans. Only bats are immune to rabies.