The US recorded 5 deaths from the disease this year, which is the highest number in a decade.

Five Americans were diagnosed with rabies this year — the largest number of deaths in a decadeand health officials told Thursday that some of the people didn’t know they had been infected or were denied life-saving shots.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the report of three of the deaths, all resulting from contact with bats. CDC officials claimed that the deaths were tragic and could be prevented.

One, an 80-year-old Illinois man, refused to undergo life-saving shots due to an enduring fear of vaccinations. A Texas boy and an Idaho man were unable to get shots due the belief that no bat bit or scratch had broken their skin.

In all three instances, individuals “either trivialized the exposure (to bats) or didn’t realize the severity of rabies” said Ryan Wallace, a CDC expert in rabies who wrote the report.

Two more deaths occurred in 2021. One was a Minnesotan man who was bitten by bat. Officials from the CDC said that he received the shots but that he had an undiagnosed immune issue that prevented them from being effective. Another victim was bit while traveling in the Philippines by an animal that was rabid and died in New York shortly after returning to the U.S.

A virus that affects the central nervous system may cause rabies. It’s often fatal to humans and animals. It’s usually spread by bites from an animal infected and the majority of U.S. infections in recent years being traced back to bat encounters.

An infection can cause anxiety, paralysis, paralysis, salivating , and hallucinations as well as insomnia anxiety, confusion, paralysis and fear of water.

Death could be a matter of weeks after the onset of symptoms. But it can be prevented through a series of five shots given within two weeks of exposure.

According to the CDC the CDC, approximately 60,000 Americans are treated each and every year to prevent exposure to rabies.

In 2019, and in 2020 there were no deaths attributed to rabies. Officials from the CDC declared that five U.S. rabies cases were last reported in a single calendar year in 2011.