On one occasion, a bat actually landed on the worker's chest. The worker's first symptoms included a sudden onset of nausea, vomiting, and headache, and later a fever. Soon he became agitated and delirious, requiring restraints. He went into a coma and died a short time later. Because of his known exposure to bats, rabies was suspected from the beginning, but he was not given post-exposure rabies prevention measures because such treatment is not effective once clinical symptoms have started.
Some workplaces create a risk of exposure to the rabies virus.
This includes veterinarians, veterinary technicians, animal control officers, and wildlife workers. Other jobs may also pose some risk, as shown in the case described above. Health care workers caring for infected patients may also be at risk, although there are no documented cases of transmission of rabies from a patient to a health care worker. Most wild mammals can get infected with rabies. The most susceptible animals include bats, raccoons, skunks, coyotes, foxes, and wolves.