Nassau County officials say an eighth wild animal has tested positive for rabies since the summer. The latest rabid raccoon was spotted by a runner at Hempstead Lake State Park.

“Rabies is nearly 100% fatal. There is one known survivor of rabies,” said Dr. Irina Gelman, commissioner of the Nassau County Health Department.

Officials say the last rabid animal case since this latest uptick in the county was discovered in 2016.

"One of the issues that we're going to talk to our counterparts in New York City is, apparently, they're not baiting the traps in Queens any longer, and we believe that some of those animals are coming into Nassau County, and we have a very robust anti-rabies program and we would ask them to consider basically approving what they've done before,” said Bruce Blakeman, executive of Nassau County.

Officials say rabid raccoons and feral cats have been found in Hempstead, Cedarhurst, Valley Stream, Hewlett, Roslyn Heights, Massapequa Park and West Hempstead.

County officials say you can reduce the risk by avoiding contact with wild or stray animals and ensuring that your pet gets rabies vaccinations and is kept on a leash.

Officials say there have been no human cases of rabies in the county to date.

In December, a Massapequa Park resident received medical attention after being exposed to a raccoon.

“The raccoon jumped out of a garbage can and bit and scratched that individual,” said Dr. Gelman.

“We covered our garbage cans with bungee wires, and if we see one outside, we just stay inside,” said Jen Simon, of Massapequa.

The New York City Health Department issued this statement: Because of our strong raccoon rabies surveillance program in NYC, we know that rabies has been circulating on the Island that includes Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Kings counties for many years. Raccoons don’t respect boundaries, so we’re not able determine how and where rabid raccoons are moving, or being moved by people. NYC had been distributing oral rabies vaccine baits in areas of NYC since 2014, but without dedicated funding, we were unable to continue the program in 2024.

We encourage Nassau County to also implement a robust surveillance program, and we would be happy to continue to provide technical assistance for an oral rabies vaccine program.