Rabid vampire bats kill 23 in Brazil
From: Agence France-Presse From correspondents in Sao Paulo
November 02, 2005

RABID vampire bats have killed 23 people and bitten hundreds of others in the past two months in the Brazilian state of Maranhao, local media reported.

The latest victim was Valice Santos, 20, who died from a rabies infection on Friday in the northern town of Turiacu, 150km from Sao Luiz, capital of Maranhao state, according to the state health ministry, quoted by the Brazilian news agency Estado.
About 300 attacks by blood-sucking vampire bats have been recorded in the town. The rabies virus assaults the nervous system and can be fatal unless treated by a vaccine.

Deforestation of the bats' rain forest habitat had triggered the spate of bat attacks, the secretary of state said.

Of the 23 who died of rabid bat bites, 18 were minors, mostly bitten on the face or fingers. Children were apparently more vulnerable to the bites because they slept more soundly than adults, a specialist was quoted as saying by the Globo agency.

The vampire bats, found in tropical Latin America, feed off of insects as well as the blood of mammals and have caused the death of large numbers of farm animals.

it's time to give up as a country if you have so many people still croaking because of rabies.