hey did y'all know Australia has like, discount rabies
it's called bat lyssavirus and is typically, you guessed it, found in bats, it can be passed to humans and other animals through their saliva but despite the fact that bat populations are kind of fucking insane here, hardly anyone ever fucking catches it!
because unlike typical rabies, lyssavirus is kinda fucking shithouse at spreading, it's only found in less than 1% of wild bats, and the virus can be washed off contaminated surfaces with regular soap and a basic ass disinfectant, and if your pet is bitten or scratched by an infected bat the chance of it catching the virus is actually pretty damn low (but never zero so they should still always be immediately taken to a vet for vaccination just in case)
what's still super fucking of scary about it though is that if you were one of the extremely rare cases of an unvaccinated person becoming infected (only specialised wildlife handlers get preemptively vaxxed), if you don't get treatment before symptoms show YOU WILL DIE. If you do get treatment before symptoms show YOU STILL MIGHT DIE.
Lyssavirus is just as deadly and untreatable as rabies
which is why all wildlife rescue groups will have their own specialised and vaccinated team to handle wild bat rescues
just this week my state had its first human lyssavirus death, it is the fourth ever recorded case of a human contracting the virus in the entire country and despite having sought immediate treatment, he still became the fourth human to die from it
I just find it fascinating that even the most like, hopelessly non-infectious version of this virus is still so utterly fucking devastating if you're the unlucky son of a bitch who manages to catch it
it just makes me feel extremely grateful for the fact that we got the strain that rarely spreads between species, our wildlife is fucked up enough, could you imagine a rabid kangaroo? could you fucking imagine
