Australian Survivor personality and fitness influencer Jaden Laing received a rabies vaccination after a bat bit him on the arm during a visit to an animal rescue center in Bali.
Laing, a strongman from Queensland, described the incident as occurring shortly after he had been handling a snake. He accepted an offer to hold a bat, which then bit him.
"I held the bat, and the bat just bit me straight away," Laing said during a call to a health line, as reported by the Daily Mail.
When informed about the bite on his forearm, the operator inquired about the bat's health. Laing described it as "a nice bat."
He recalled expressing concerns about rabies to a staff member at the venue, who assured him the animal was not infected. "Well, I said to the lady … 'I got rabies now.' And the lady goes, 'No. It doesn't have rabies,'" Laing recounted.
The health line operator stressed the seriousness of rabies, noting that "once the symptoms started, it's unfortunately fatal, which is why we take it quite seriously."
Bat bites can transmit rabies or related viruses through saliva. The operator cautioned that a bat appearing healthy or behaving calmly does not rule out infection. Rabies is almost invariably fatal once symptoms manifest, but timely treatment following potential exposure can prevent the disease. The vaccine administered after a possible exposure is a preventative measure and does not confirm rabies infection in either the individual or the animal.
