Raccoon Rabies Spreads to Midwest From Northeast
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ATLANTA — Rabies among raccoons has begun spreading from the East Coast into the Midwest, the government warned Friday.
A rabid raccoon was captured in May in Poland, Ohio, three miles from the Pennsylvania line, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Rabies strikes pets, farm animals, wild animals and humans. In the Northeast, the raccoon is the primary carrier of the virus.
Raccoons accounted for about half of the 7,881 animal rabies cases in the United States in 1995, the CDC said. There were no reported cases of humans directly infected by rabid raccoons.
Raccoon rabies started in the Southeast in the 1950s and has spread as far north as New Hampshire and as far south as North Carolina. Its westward spread was slowed by barriers such as rivers and the Appalachian Mountains.
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