Published August 18, 2010 12:00AM
The Peruvian health ministry sent emergency teams to a remote region of the Amazon last week after vampire bats bit 500 people and started a rabies outbreak, the BBC reports.
The community of Urakusa in the north-eastern Peruvian Amazon, close to the border with Ecuador, sought help after four children in Awajun indigenous tribe died after being bitten. The heath ministry teams administered vaccinations and treated those who had been bitten.
Unusually low temperatures in the Peruvian Amazon in recent years and deforestation are two believed reason for the attacks. Vampire bats, the article states, usually feed on wildlife or livestock but have been known to attack humans.
–Michael Webster