Sandy Ellington, Community Health Educator at Guilford County's Department of Public Health, believes there may be a correlation between the rise of construction and the rise of cases of rabies in the area. “Animals don’t seem to be afraid as they used to be. They have to find food and if it means coming on your deck at night because you leave your dog food out, that's an easy way to get a meal," explains Ellington. "With a lot of building going on, we are displacing them out of their habitats to the point that they are coming into our habitat so that they can hunt or find food.”

According to Ellington, people can reduce the chance of wild animals roaming around their homes by keeping trash lids secured and not leaving pet food outside their home. In North Carolina, raccoons, bats, foxes, and skunks commonly carry the virus. North Carolina law requires all domestic pets, age four months or older, living inside or out to get a rabies vaccine. Ellington says this prevention is the best way to protect people. “If a person comes in contact with it what happens is the rabies virus itself will attack the brain and nervous system and it is almost always fatal” if untreated. Ellington advises anyone bitten by an unfamiliar animal to wash the wound with warm soapy water, then contact your doctor and animal control. The infected person will get a series of injections to fight the virus.