Increased public awareness has meant more phone calls about bats to North Olympic Peninsula public health authorities.
Dr. Tom Locke, health officer for Clallam and Jefferson counties, said Tuesday that the inquiries stemmed partly from last month’s encounter between a bat and a Seattle-area woman at Lake Ozette.
The 55-year-old woman, and three Olympic National Park employees who retrieved the bat after it scratched the woman, received preventive anti-rabies treatment after the state Department of Health tests found that it was rabid, Barb Maynes, parks spokeswoman, said in July.
The park declined to identify any of the people who encountered the bat.
None was bitten.
Even if they had been bitten, quick treatment would have prevented rabies, Locke said.
As for the calls to the Clallam and Jefferson county health departments, “what we’re seeing is a greater public awareness that there is a health threat.”
That threat, said Locke, increases at this time of year when bats come out of dormancy to feed on burgeoning insect populations and when people spend more time outside.
Locke said he had no precise number of calls because health authorities count only actual contacts, which have not increased.
