BAT TESTS POSITIVE FOR RABIES; GIRL WHO SUFFERED BITE FACES 4-WEEK SERIES OF INJECTIONS.

Byline: Orith Goldberg Staff Writer

Health officials issued a warning Friday after rabies tests came back positive on a bat that bit a 9-year-old girl who tried to save it from a swimming pool at a Santa Clarita apartment complex.

The girl, a Los Angeles resident visiting friends at the complex, was in the pool with other children when the bat flew into the water about 4 p.m. Saturday. The bat bit the girl's finger as she attempted to rescue it.

A neighbor managed to scoop the bat into a container and handed it over to the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control, said Sgt. Jerry White, field supervisor for the department's Castaic shelter.

``We picked it up and got ahold of the health department,'' he said.

The bat was destroyed Sunday, and officials determined Monday afternoon that it carried rabies, said Patrick Ryan, director of the county's Veterinary Public Health and Rabies Control.

Health officials contacted the girl's parents Monday with the results and recommended that she seek rabies prevention treatment, which consists of a series of injections administered over a four-week period. The girl is undergoing treatment.

The location of the pool and the girl's identity were not released by health officials in order to maintain the girl's confidentiality.

Bats have been reported in the Valencia, Newhall and Castaic areas. It isn't unusual for bats to fly to developed areas when construction takes place in their natural habitat, White said.

In the past six to eight months, about four of 15 bats that have been caught in the area tested positive for rabies, possibly exposing two people to the virus, White said.

If a person comes in proximity to bats, which weigh about half an ounce, they are advised to avoid any kind of contact and call Animal Care and Control.

Healthy bats fly by echolocation, a sort of natural sonar, which helps them avoid contact with objects, including humans. Bats that are on the ground or have lost their sonar are probably sick, health officials said.

``They're like a lot of wild animals. . . . The only thing predictable is that they are unpredictable,'' White said. ``People need to leave the wildlife alone. If you can avoid confrontation (with bats), avoid it. And don't press the issue,'' he said.

Rabies is usually transmitted through saliva or a bite and travels through the body to the spinal cord and the brain. If no preventive treatment is sought, the virus is deadly, health officials said.

It can take a few weeks to several months to affect the central nervous system. If a person is bitten on the face, it will take even less time for the virus to get to the brain, Ryan said.

Bats that are sick or dead from rabies can still transmit the disease to humans. Simply touching a rabid bat can be enough to transmit the disease.

From 1980 to 1996, 32 people in the United States died of rabies. Only one of the bat-associated cases showed clear evidence of a bite.

The Centers for Disease Control recommends that anyone exposed to a bat - by a bite, scratch or any touch contact - receive preventive treatment unless the bat tests negative for rabies.

Treatment for the virus involves five separate shots to the arm and costs about $1,000 per person.