The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States has declared that rabies cases are on the rise. The CDC’s rabies team has said that it’s tracking 15 different likely outbreaks from New York to Oregon.

“We are currently tracking 15 different likely outbreaks,” said Dr. Ryan Wallace, who leads the rabies team at the CDC in the U.S. Areas with the likely outbreaks include Nassau County, New York, which issued a health threat over rabid animals last month, as well as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and parts of Alaska, Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont.

“There are parts of the United States where it does seem like we’re getting more calls and more reports,” Wallace said, while noting an increase in rabid foxes in the West and rabid bats across the country. “Whether those numbers are truly significant increases, we can only tell at the end of the year. But right now, at peak rabies season, it does seem like activity is higher.”

Six human deaths from rabies have already been reported over the last year, and the CDC stated that this was the highest level of rabies deaths in years, according to a report by NBC News.  

Bats are the most common cause of rabies infection in people and are also the most likely species to be infected with the virus. Every year, 100,000 Americans are vaccinated against rabies following a potential rabies exposure. Rabies post-exposure prophylaxis includes wound washing, human rabies immune globulin, and rabies vaccine, the CDC wrote on its website.

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The rabies virus invades the central nervous system and is almost always fatal once symptoms start. Early symptoms, which can begin about a week or up to a year after exposure, may resemble the flu and progress quickly to confusion, paralysis, salivation, hallucinations, and difficulty swallowing, followed by death within weeks. –NBC News

The CDC says that the best way to avoid a rabies infection is by staying away from wildlife.