CDC: 2nd Mass. Resident Caught Rabies

BARNSTABLE, Mass. — Federal and state health officials have confirmed that two people in Massachusetts contracted rabies last year.

A Cape Cod man died last week after apparently getting bitten by a bat at his home. The Department of Public Health said it was the first case of human rabies contracted in Massachusetts since 1935, although others have contracted the virus outside of the state since then.

The Cape Cod Times reports that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta says Massachusetts reported two human rabies cases in 2011.

The state did not publicize the second case, in which the victim apparently got the disease from a dog bite in Brazil. There was no information on whether that person died.

Rabies is transmitted through the saliva of infected animals.