Deadly bat virus ‘can incubate in human victims for years’

A NSW man has become the fourth Australian to die from an insidious – and incurable – bat virus that may lie dormant for years before it attacks the victim’s central nervous system.

A NSW man has died after being bitten by a bat several months ago.

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The deadly bat virus that has claimed the life of a man in northern NSW can lie dormant for months or even years before it becomes active, rapidly progressing then to paralysis, convulsions and death, health authorities say.

The NSW man, who was in his 50s, was bitten by a bat several months ago and had been in a critical condition in hospital; on Thursday, NSW Health confirmed he had died.

His was the first confirmed case of Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) in NSW, and the fourth case in Australia, all of them fatal.

“ABLV is very closely related to rabies and will cause death in susceptible people if they become infected and are not treated quickly,” the University of Melbourne’s director of the Centre for Equine Infectious Diseases, James Gilkerson, said.

It may take months or years for symptoms to show, following a scratch or bite from an infected bat. The early symptoms are flu-like, including headache, fever and fatigue. The illness progresses rapidly to death, usually within a week or two.

There is no effective treatment for rabies or ABLV once symptoms have started but rabies infection can be prevented following an exposure through proper wound care and a series of treatments known as post-exposure prophylaxis or post-exposure treatment.

All three previous cases were in Queensland and all died as a result of ABLV infection after bites or scratches by bats.

.A fruit bat. Picture: Brendan Radke

In 1996, bat handler Patricia Paget, 39, died in Rockhampton after being scratched by an infected flying fox. She went to hospital five weeks later complaining of shoulder pain, dizziness and fever but her condition deteriorated and by the 11th day she was fully ventilation-dependent and non-responsive. She died 20 days after being admitted.

In the same year, Monique Todhunter, 37, from Mackay was bitten on the finger while trying to remove a bat from a child on whom it had landed at a birthday party. The mother of two was advised to undergo a course of post-exposure treatment but declined, because of the $700 cost.

More than two years later, she began to experience shoulder pain, fever, vomiting, and muscle spasms and within days became ventilation-dependent and unable to communicate due to full paralysis. She died 19 days after admission to hospital.

In December 2012, Lincoln Flynn, 8, was scratched by a bat on Long Island, in the Whitsunday Islands. Two months later he developed fever, abdominal pain and violent seizures. He repeatedly needed to be extubated and sedated because of spasms.

He died 28 days after being admitted to hospital.

Lincoln Flynn died after contracting lyssavirus.

NSW Health director in health protection Keira Glasgow said further investigations were under way to understand whether other factors contributed to the NSW man’s illness.

NSW Health said 118 people required medical assessment after being bitten or scratched by bats in 2024.

Ms Glasgow said people should wash the wound for 15 minutes and apply an antiseptic with antivirus action, before they were treated with rabies immunoglobulin and a rabies vaccine.

ABLV can be found in species of flying foxes, fruit bats and ­insect-eating microbats.

It was first identified near Ballina in northern NSW in January 1995 during a national surveillance program for the recently identified Hendra virus.

Authorities warn any bat in Australia could potentially carry ABLV. The behaviour or appearance of a bat is not a true guide as to whether it is carrying the virus. People who see a distressed, injured or trapped bat should contact WIRES or a local wildlife rescue group.