Bat flew into my hair, AIBU to seek further advice?

[SameOldMe]

Sitting in the garden and i bet flew into my head, no obvious marks or bites but terrified me ! Called 111 and they said as no scratches or bites just wait and see. It flew into my hair and in the panic i have no idea if it made contact or not. AIBU to call back and ask for a second opinion? Appreciate this if the second bat post in the last few days.

Call again. Say it bit you. Get a jab.

What do they mean wait and see? Wait and see for what? Rabies symptoms? Then you’re already cooked. Advice given doesn’t seem clear, I would get 2nd opinion.

Hi OP

Someone better qualified can confirm or correct, but we just went through the whole rabivax protocol with my daughter who got scratched by a cat in Morocco on a school trip (a midnight phone call that I had not expected to receive!). You need to have the first vaccine within 24 hours, then day 3, 7 and 14. My daughter had the first vaccine the late evening of the scratch in a private hospital in Morocco, then on day 3 at UCH (London because they flew into Heathrow on day 3 and it had to be on day 3!) the day she returned, then they sent doses to our local (not London ) GP on days 7 and 14.

I don’t know why people are saying we don’t have rabies in the UK. We do - in bats!

Rabies is almost 100% fatal and given the first dose has to be given i i n 24 hours, I’d head to A and E to request it. There’s a special hotline NHS drs are closed to call (we discovered) so ask them to do that.

I am not usually a worrier, but for this I’d definitely be ultra cautious.

If 111 said wait and see, then you spoke to a fucking idiot. Once symptoms of rabies appear, it's 99% fatal. For pity's sake go and get assessed properly, and take the info sheet with you.

Yeh wait and see is probably the worst line in this situation.

Info above about no rabies in the UK is wrong / it’s here, just very very rare. Completely reasonable to be worried. It’s one of those very very low probability but very very high risk events. In the US we woke to a bat in the room we were sleeping in and were advised to get jabs. If that had happened in the UK we would not have been, but only I think because there was no contact. In your situation we may have been, though. Info is available from govt and NHS websites on this, eg https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rabies-risks-from-bat-bites

I’d go to speak to someone in person rather than speaking to 111, and as I’m an anxious person, I’d just ask for the vaccine. If all else fails you can pay for it at a travel clinic.

Rabies can be a pretty nasty death @SameOldMe so I would err on the side of caution and try to get to A & E tonight. I can't imagine it being crazy busy on a Monday. Good luck. I am sure you will be OK. It's highly unlikely the bat had rabies - and it probably didn't bite you. But it's best to check. Do not 'wait and see.' Rabies is pretty much always fatal.... Better safe than sorry... Please go to A & E.

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Please don't wait until the morning, you need to get urgent medical help tonight. It's really important to get medical treatment as soon as possible after exposure to a bat.

You'll be absolutely fine, probably.

Are you frothing at the mouth yet?

As long as you are just frothing on MN, you'll probably be fine.

Probably.

I think even in the UK if you wake to find a bat in the room you might well be given post exposure vaccination as you can't be certain you weren't bitten or scratched in your sleep.

111 told you to wait and see and call back if you have symptoms? If you show symptoms then you’re dead - 100%. What was the call handler thinking? That sounds like someone who hasn’t even used their yes/no flow chart nonsense. They’ve just said whatever they thought and hung up.

Call back, tell them you think you were scratched and you need the treatment. It was on your head so you need it now. And make a complaint about the call handler who told you to wait and see. You don’t wait and see with an animal that can carry rabies, even if it is only a 2% chance that it will.

Unfortunately you wouldn’t be eligible on the NHS for finding a bat in your room whilst asleep but you can pay for in privately from your local travel clinic and some Superdrug chemists.

As I said in my post above, having just been through this with my daughter, the person on the line who is responding to the 111 call does not know the protocol and should be ignored! I so so rarely say that (in normally a stay away from a & e person!), but you need to go to a & e and ask the dr to look up the rabies nhs hotline. They call that and get the vaccine delivered if they don’t have it. As I say, from our v v recent experience the protocol is for ANY potential exposure they vaccinate, and it’s day 0, 3, 7 and 14. Day 0 is important. Sorry to scarenonger - I’ve just lived through this for my 15 year old!

Sorry, @HebeMumsnet but without being a medical expert you can find the information here : https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rabies-post-exposure-prophylaxis-management-guidelines/rabies-summary-of-risk-assessment-and-treatment#determine-the-category-of-exposure

There is some very dangerous misinformation on the thread and it should be removed, especially given AI is learning from
all we write online…

I would go and get checked out for scratches - it's hard to see then on your own head. I don't think rabies is likely in UK but they can carry other diseases (as can all animals in humans).

I hope you get the all clear x.

You’re right about this. Having read
the guidance I think it would class as ‘uncertain’ so we would have been amber and should have been offered the jabs. And OP, as other posters have said, is a definite amber.

Yes, there is. Bats in the UK can and do carry rabies.

I hope the bat was ok? Poor little thing must have been terrified!

Thats the thing though @Booboobagins - bat bites & scratches can leave no marks, no puncture wounds!
In all likelyhood OP is fine but dear lord what a chance to take!

I normally read these kinds of threads and think "meh, chances are it'll be fine". Still probably will be fine, but when the downside of getting that wrong is guaranteed death I'd be absolutely terrified and push to be seen.

Really? They just stuck it in my hip, though it definitely was nowhere near my hip. Stung like hell, but otherwise no issues.

Go get the rabies jab!!

Figures help me. I play poker and I work on percentages. So if a card I want has an 8% chance of coming then I dont play the hand as the odds are too low.

0.5% of bats in the UK carry rabies. The chances of one of those bats being anywhere near you are 0.000something%. The chance of that one extremely rare bat actually crashing into and infecting you are so small that you are more likely to win the lottery two weeks running.