Animal

Boy, 2, given rabies jab after being bitten by bat while he was asleep


It’s thought the pipistrelle got into the room after it lost its way (Picture: Getty Images)

A two-year-old boy was bitten by a bat as he slept in his family home.

Kian Mallinson’s mum Jodie Smith, 29, was woken around 2am on Thursday at the family home in Hull when the toddler started screaming.

Suspecting a tummy ache, she brought her son into her bedroom – only discovering what had really happened later that morning when she found the nocturnal mammal in her son’s bed.

As she flicked up the duvet, the bat fell out.

It’s thought to have been a pipistrelle, a species known for jerky and erratic flight.

Jodie discovered the bat when she made her son’s bed (Picture: Getty Images)

Speaking to The Sun, Jodie said: ‘The bat started crawling across his bedroom floor. I was terrified. I thought it was a tarantula at first. I’ve never screamed so loudly.’

After Jodie and her partner Jack Mallinson, 30, realised what their uninvited visitor was, they took it outside before taking their son to their GP.

He was then taken to hospital and given a rabies jab as a precaution.

Although Kian is now recovering, Jodie admitted she was very worried when her doctor suggested he needed the injection.

She added: ‘He’s my little miracle so as soon as I heard the word rabies I was terrified. That’s when panic set in.’

Kian is now due to have more injections while parents Jodie and Jack have been left scratching their heads as to how the bat got in.

Kian is due to have more injections (Picture: Getty Images/Science Photo Library)

The bat died and was sent for tests.

A spokesman for The Bat Conservation Trust said UK bats do not bite people unless they are handled or trapped.

He said this bat could have been young, still learning to fly and got into to the house by accident on its way back to the family roost.

Dr Kevin Brown from Public Health England, said rabies has not been found in pipistrelle bats but added a course of vaccinations was the recommended treatment for anyone bitten by any species.

The last human case of rabies contracted from a bat in the UK was in 2002.





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