Recent Immigrant Is First L.A. County Rabies Death Since ’75

A recent immigrant from El Salvador who died three months ago from rabies was the first person in Los Angeles County to die from the disease in 30 years, health authorities said Thursday.

Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the county’s public health agency, said it is unlikely that he passed the disease on to anyone else.

The county coroner’s office had earlier determined the man died from rabies, but health authorities waited to announce the results until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the findings.

The tests, Fielding said, showed that the rabies was from a strain not found in the United States.

Reports of rabies in humans are rare in California. Since 2000, health authorities say they have recorded just one case per year.

The coroner’s office identified the victim as Yorlin Orlando Montiel, 22, who was living in Norwalk.

He died Oct. 26 at Coast Plaza Doctors Hospital in Norwalk, about 15 months after arriving in the United States.

Health authorities do not know exactly how he contracted rabies or whether he visited other countries before moving from El Salvador.

Rabies is endemic in dogs and other animals in parts of Central America and is found in small numbers of bats in Los Angeles County.