Only the kitty died

Every year thousands of teens die in auto accidents. They get STDs and HPV; they develop obesity problems that will lead to heart attacks and diabetes; they have a soaring rate of unwed pregnancies and abortions; they start smoking and that leads to a life of misery and money going up in smoke; their musical tastes are leading them to early deafness. But let a little kitten they played with be diagnosed with rabies, and the public health departments of four states and the federal CDC launch into action. Public Health Response to a rabid kitten.

During the July 2007 South Atlantic Summer Showdown softball tournament 60 teams of 12 players each from multiple states along with families, friends, coordinators, coaches and one little kitten gathered for at least six games. The coach of the NC team took the kitty home, and then decided it was behaving abnormally, so she took it to an emergency vet, who euthanized it and held it for cremation.

Three days later the mother of one of the girls found out the fate of the kitten and she contacted the vet because she'd been bitten while trying to feed it during the tournament. The vet hadn't tested it because no one had reported any bites. The mother went to the clinic and got the dead kitten and took it in her car to her local health department for testing. About a week later the dead kitten was identified as having a raccoon variant of rabies.

Well, Mom had been around a bit by then, so she had to give her travel itinerary to the NC Div. of Public Health which then contacted the SC Dept of Health and Environmental Control and they got the team rosters and then notified Georgia and Tennessee who also had teams in the tournament and the CDC. Exposed-to-the-kitten people had to have postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), so they used e-mails, newspapers, telephone and TV to alert the public. In that process they found out there were other kittens in that litter handled by other people, plus a lot of the girl softball players had played with the first kitty. These girls were interviewed by the health department personnel, who couldn't track down all the spectators, but I think they decided they hadn't handled the kitty, just the players. Out of 38 people connected with 60 teams a possible 27 had direct exposure to that one kitty! They got the PEP test. No one got human rabies; and there were no adverse reactions to the PEP. Only the kitten got sick; only the kitty died.

Reading through this amazing chain of events, which shows how quickly health and government departments can respond to a threat, I thought that Ray Nagin of NOLA's Katrina in 2005 needed a few more mothers of softball players to put his plans in action. I'm betting a few concerned mothers could have moved those buses.