[Archived] Health Department Issues Urgent Plea for Anyone Exposed to Rabid Racoon

City Press Release


	City of Alexandria, Virginia Office of the City Manager Alexandria City Hall 301 King Street, Suite 3500 Alexandria, Virginia 22314-3211 www.alexandriava.gov Telephone: 703.838.4300 Fax : 703.838.6343

For Immediate Release
September 14, 2004
PIO 220-04/bg

Health Department Issues Urgent Plea
For Anyone Exposed to Rabid Racoon

The Alexandria Health Department has issued an urgent plea to anyone who may have been exposed to a baby racoon in the last three to four weeks to report the potential exposure to the Health Department. Rabies is a fatal disease, and finding anyone who may have been exposed to the rabid animal is critical, health officials said. On about Aug. 25, someone left a box with a racoon, about six weeks old, on the doorstep of a wildlife rehabilitator who lives in the 400 block of W. Alexandria Ave. The racoon apparently bit the resident. Later, the racoon died and tests determined that the racoon had rabies.

The Health Department only recently learned that the rabid racoon was left by an unknown person at the residence. For their own health and safety, whoever left the racoon at the residence in August, and anyone who may have been in contact with a racoon in Alexandria, should call Bob Custard, Environmental Health Manager, at 571.221.7288, or Kathy DeSnyder, Epidemiologist, 703.838.4400, ext. 264, as soon as possible.

"Rabies in humans is a fatal disease,” said Dr. Charles Konigsberg, Jr., Director of Health for the City of Alexandria. "To protect themselves from rabies, citizens should not feed or touch wild animals and should be sure their pets are vaccinated,” said Konigsberg

Rabies have been widespread in the raccoon population in the Northern Virginia area for over 10 years. Thirteen cases of rabid racoons were reported in Alexandria in 2003 and five have been reported so far this year.

Bob Custard, Environmental Health Manager for the Alexandria Health Department, said that rabies is commonly found in raccoons, skunks, foxes, and bats. "It is especially important that people not attract wildlife to their yards by feeding their pets outdoors,” Custard said. "Storing garbage in animal-proof metal or plastic trash cans rather than in plastic bags will also reduce the number of wild animals attracted to your yard,” Custard said.

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