Lackland Air Force Base gives Rabies Immunizations to Trainees due to Bats in Dormitories

By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.

Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas is giving 200 Trainees rabies Immunizations due to their potential contact with Bats in their dormitories. Several bats were found inside the Lackland Trainees’ dormitories causing the military base public health officials to administer the five shot rabies immunization to Trainees to avoid any potential public health crisis or individual contamination.

Lackland Base public health officials cited the fact that rabies is a potentially fatal disease if contracted by humans for deciding to take precautionary measures of administering the rabies immunization to every Trainee residing in the bat infested dormitories.

Meanwhile, in Eagle Pass, Texas, over 2,300 students at Eagle Pass High School were potentially exposed to flying bats within the school on Monday, January 13, 2014, causing the Eagle Pass Independent School District Superintendent Gilberto Gonzalez to cancel classes that day and bring in commercial exterminators to trap the bats and attempt closing the spaces within the school to keep out the bats. Classes resumed on Tuesday, January 14th, while the exterminators continued working on the bat infestation within Eagle Pass High School.

The bat contamination at Eagle Pass High School manifested itself again on Friday, January 17th, as hundreds of bats began flying inside the school cafeteria and classroom, causing students to attempt to capture some of the bats while others scrambled for cover under their desks.

Many Eagle Pass High School parents, grandparents, and students complained to the Eagle Pass Independent School District regarding the potential public health crisis among students, teachers, staff, and guests. The school district recalled the exterminators, including industrial grade exterminators, to trap and seal all crevices and spaces within Eagle Pass High School.

The Eagle Pass Independent School District resumed classes at the large Eagle Pass High School without providing the rabies Immunizations to students, teachers, and staff, particularly those that came in contact with the bats. The potential for a student, teacher, or staff to contract rabies is remote but nonetheless a real possibility. It remains to be seen whether the Eagle Pass Independent School District will follow suit like
Lackland Air Force Base’s administration of the rabies immunization to Trainees.