Even though we would fly to Mexico the next day and the children were in college, we decided to put up a Christmas tree on the day before Christmas. I’m still not sure why. But my son and I went up to the attic and hauled down the artificial tree that we had left standing uncovered. It’s pertinent to mention at this time that my son and I are the oblivious types who do not notice details.
When we got it to the living room, two things happened. First, my son and I dug into the popcorn that my daughter had made for the family, and second, my husband observed that the tree was covered with bat guano. It seems that a bat had been roosting over the tree.
I immediately recalled that bat guano could be dangerous. Then I truly panicked after reading in the encyclopedia (no Internet at that time) that breathing the air in caves with rabid bats could cause rabies or that the virus could enter the body through the nose or mouth. While our situation wasn’t exactly the same, I called our doctor’s office for confirmation that we would be all right. Because of the holiday, I had to leave an urgent message for him to call us. Shortly, a substitute for our doctor called and said he simply didn’t know if there was any danger to our close contact with bat guano. He suggested that I call the State Department of Health which I did. At first, no one answered but I left an emergency message for someone to call us even though it was Christmas Eve.
A doctor in the Health Department finally returned our call. He said that we definitely were not going to get rabies from touching a Christmas tree covered with bat guano or even from eating popcorn with our bat-guano covered hands – a big relief. He did, however, give us some advice. He said: You should always wash your hands before eating anything.
aginggratefully 