10 Exposed to Rabid Cat Are Being Treated

Ten people in the Los Angeles area have begun receiving preventive treatment for rabies after being exposed to an infected stray cat that was found in Acapulco by an unsuspecting North Hollywood woman and brought to the United States two weeks ago.

County health authorities said Monday it is the first recorded instance in 12 years in Los Angeles County of anyone being exposed to the deadly disease.

Two people in Louisiana--relatives of the woman who owned the cat--and another 10 people in Mexico also were identified as having been exposed to the infected yellow cat, but local authorities said they are not sure how many of them actually are receiving treatment.

Health officials, meanwhile, were trying to determine how the cat--which may have been exhibiting signs of illness when it arrived at Los Angeles International Airport--was allowed to be brought into the country on Dec. 7 without being quarantined or more closely examined.

Veterinarian Gayle Robison said Monday that she was working at an animal clinic in North Hollywood on Dec. 9 when the cat’s owner, Sarah Noy of North Hollywood, and her father, Larry Noy of Sun Valley, brought it in for an examination.

Robison said Sarah Noy had found the animal about three months earlier in Mexico and named it Annie. It was examined by a veterinarian in Acapulco on Dec. 1, vaccinated for rabies and issued a health certificate. However, upon arrival in Los Angeles less than a week later, the cat appeared ill, Robison said she was told.

Veterinarian Called

“They said that they had a house call (from a) vet earlier that evening and that he felt it might be rabies,” Robison said. “Sometime during that day (Larry Noy) was bitten by the cat. I got down and looked at it and I felt there was a 90% chance it was rabid.”

The animal, Robison said, was salivating and its pupils were dilated. Its facial muscles were twitching and it was violently clawing at its cage.

Robison said she told the Noys that she believed the cat to be rabid and strongly recommended that it be quarantined. However, the Noys declined and the next day sought the opinion of another veterinarian in North Hollywood. The cat was then quarantined and, on Dec. 11, destroyed.

Tests for rabies proved positive. Although she was not bitten, Robison said she immediately received two booster shots to augment the rabies vaccination she received while in veterinary school at Colorado State University.

Others receiving treatment locally include Sarah Noy and her father, neither of whom could be reached for comment Monday, as well as seven of their relatives or friends, officials said. Three of the seven, including Larry Noy, were bitten.

Rabies is caused by a virus that attacks the central nervous system. There is no effective treatment after the onset of symptoms, and one does not need to be bitten to contract the disease. Being scratched or licked by a rabid animal--even breathing near a wheezing rabid animal--has caused infection.

Preventive treatment includes the immediate use of rabies immune globulin, which contains large amounts of antibodies. Five shots containing rabies vaccine are also administered over a four-week period.

The last time a person was infected with rabies in Los Angeles County was in 1975, according to Toby Staheli, a spokeswoman for the county Department of Health Services. The victim was a 16-year-old Mexican girl, Angelita Vasquez, who had been bitten by a rabid dog five months before entering the United States. She later died.

Los Angeles County Veterinarian C. Patrick Ryan said his office is investigating how the Noys’ cat was brought into the country without its illness being detected. Animals that arrive at the airport on international flights are supposed to be examined to determine if they are healthy.

Typically, however, there is often a shortage of health inspectors at the airport and not all animals are scrutinized, Ryan said.

That is more often the case with cats, which, because they are less often rabies carriers, are usually not as closely inspected as dogs, authorities said.

In fact, cats do not require any health certification “so long as they appear to be healthy upon arrival,” said Tom Demarcus, officer in charge of the U.S. Public Health Service’s quarantine station at the airport.

Demarcus said Monday that he is not familiar with the situation involving the Noys’ cat but said, “It’s entirely conceivable that the animal was incubating rabies but not outwardly exhibiting” signs of the disease when it passed through the airport.

If the animal had appeared sick, it would have been held for examination at the owner’s expense, he said.

Health authorities recommended Monday that domestic animals not be imported from areas like Mexico where rabies is common, unless they can be certified free of the disease. Household pets should not be taken into those areas unless they can be protected from exposure to other animals, authorities said.