Health officials seek woman after kitten dies from rabies
WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) – Health officials in Ohio County are looking for a woman who brought a stray rabid kitten to an animal hospital.
Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department administrator Howard Gamble tells multiple media outlets that the woman found the kitten along the side of a road and brought it to Long Run Pet Hospital on Aug. 28. The kitten died on Sept. 15. Lab tests showed it had rabies.
A veterinary worker who was bitten by the kitten is receiving post-exposure vaccinations.
The hospital’s operator, Dr. Pamela Harrold, says the kitten had no contact with other animals.
Gamble says health officials want to know whether the unidentified woman who found the kitten was bitten or scratched. They also want to determine whether other animals or humans were exposed to rabies.