Southwestern Berks is next to rabies hotpot; reports here are rare

by Steve Reinbrecht

I’ve heard of two cases of rabies recently in Southwestern Berks County.

In early May, during the day, a resident killed a rabid skunk in his yard on Faust Road in Lower Heidelberg, according to the township. Because skunks, raccoons, foxes and bats are nocturnal, seeing them active during the day is a warning sign.

And a rabid bat was reported July 15 in Sinking Spring, according to the state agriculture department, which keeps track of cases in animals.

So far in 2016, Berks overall has had only seven reports of rabies, out of 223 reports year-to-date in Pennsylvania.

But Southwestern Berks is adjacent to the state's rabies hot spot.

“The southeast area of the state has reported the most rabies cases to date in 2016,” the state’s website says. “The southeast region frequently reports a high number of animal rabies cases in Pennsylvania.”

We abut Lancaster County, which has had 18 reports so far in 2016, the most in the state. Nearby Chester County has had 16 reports this year, the second highest number. [Maybe they have more disease; maybe better reporting.]

I’m from the generation that watched “Old Yeller” and “Cujo” in horror and recall gruesome stories of multiple painful shots in the belly as the only option to certain death. Rabies cases are rare and treatment much better. Only two or three people die of rabies in the U.S. each year, according to the federal CDC.

In the first seven months of the year, across Pennsylvania, rabies reports were up by almost 20 percent over the same period in 2015 – from 187 to 223.

Raccoons are by far the most common carrier, but don’t rule out other mammals: six cows, two goats and a horse were infected in Pennsylvania in the first half of 2016.