Friday, August 12, 2011

US reports first death from vampire bat

US reports first death from vampire bat

The vampire bat (Pascual Soriano)

(CBS News) 

A 19-year-old migrant farm worker from Mexico became the first person in the United States to ever die from a vampire bat bite, according to U.S. health authorities.

The man, who was not identified by name, was bitten July 15 while sleeping in his family's home in Michoacán, Mexico. He did not seek out medical treatment for the bat bite and instead crossed the border into the United States en route to work in a sugarcane plantation in Louisiana. But after working one day in the fields, he developed pain in his shoulder, as well as numbness in his left hand and a drooping left eye accompanied by a high fever. He died on Aug. 21.

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