Leesburg, Va. – Officials notified parents of nearly 1,000 Girl Scouts that their daughters may have been exposed to rabies at a Virginia camp.
There is a small chance that any of the girls were infected by bats in some of the sleeping shelters at Camp Potomac Woods, Loudoun County officials said.
But authorities are erring on the side of caution because about 1 percent of bats carry rabies, a viral disease that is incurable once symptoms appear. Bats can bite children in their sleep without waking them.
“We think the risk is extremely small, but we can’t say there is no risk,” Loudoun County Health Department director David Goodfriend said.
Last month, the mother of a girl who had attended the camp contacted the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital. The girl had told her mother the shelter she slept in had bats under the eaves. Five bats subsequently caught at the camp’s shelters tested negative for rabies. But officials learned a few girls touched a bat captured by a counselor and that some girls had not used protective netting around their beds. Health officials recommended that 16 girls begin receiving a month-long series of shots.
