美國男子愛親近蝙蝠 卻最終因染狂犬病身亡

A Utah man who caught bats and let his wife play with them, died of rabies -- the first death of its kind in the state in 74 years.

一名擅捉蝙蝠並讓妻子與蝙蝠玩耍的猶他州男子，於日前死於狂犬病，這是該州74年來首例此類死亡病例。

Gary Giles, 55, first began having neck and back pain on Oct. 19 and doctors thought he'd just pulled a muscle.

從10月19日起，55歲的加里·吉爾斯的頸部和背部開始出現疼痛，醫生當時認爲他只是拉傷了一塊肌肉。

But the pain only got worse and turned to numbness and tingling.

但隨後疼痛更加厲害，並變成了麻木和刺痛。

"Being touched, he felt like he had pins and needles all over his skin," Giles' daughter Crystal Sedgwick told Fox13. "He felt like his skin was on fire."

吉爾斯的女兒克里斯特·塞奇威克向《福克斯13頻道》透露：“被觸摸時，他會感覺全身發麻，好像皮膚着火似的。”

It wasn't until Giles died last Sunday at Utah Valley Hospital that doctors realized he'd been infected with rabies, Sedgwick said.

塞奇威克稱，直到上週日吉爾斯在猶他谷醫院去世，醫生們才意識到他已經感染了狂犬病。

The state's health department believe he contracted the deadly virus from bats, which literally hung around his home, but they're still working to confirm the theory.

該州的衛生部門認爲，吉爾斯是從家裏的蝙蝠那裏感染了這種致命病毒，但他們仍在努力證實這一猜想。

"My mom has always thought that bats were really cute, so he would sit there and hold them for her and let her pet their heads, and they would lick them," Sedgwick said.

塞奇威克稱：“我媽媽一直認爲蝙蝠很可愛，所以我爸爸會坐在那裏爲她抱着蝙蝠，讓她撫摸它們的頭，然後它們會舔他們。”

Sedgwick's mom, Juanita Giles, said she didn't realize the bats that infested their home could be carriers of the highly contagious ailment.

塞奇威克的媽媽胡安妮塔·吉爾斯表示，她沒有意識到在家裏出沒的蝙蝠可能是這種高度傳染性疾病的攜帶者。

"I had no clue," she told KSL. "We would wake up in the night and they would be walking on our bed. I've always thought bats were kind of cute, but I had no idea the kind of risk we were at."

她向KSL透露：“當時我一無所知。我們會在夜裏醒來，蝙蝠們會在我們的牀上走。我一直認爲蝙蝠很可愛，但我不知道我們面臨着什麼樣的風險。”

Since her husband's death, Juanita said she and the rest of the family are getting vaccinated -- just in case.

胡安妮塔稱，自從她的丈夫去世後，她和她的家人都在接種疫苗，以防萬一。