A Central California woman died from rabies after she was bitten by a bat, officials said Tuesday, in the first fatality from the saliva-passed disease in her county in more than 30 years.

Leah Seneng, a Central California teacher, died from rabies after she was bitten last month by a bat that she found in her classroom.

Fresno resident Leah Seneng was reportedly killed by a rabies infection that she likely caught from a bat that had wandered into her classroom.

A California middle school teacher has died after contracting rabies via a bat that flew into her classroom. Leah Seneng, 60, found the bat in her classroom in mid-October. When she went to pick it up and put it outside, it bit her, the woman’s friend, Laura Splotch, told ABC 30.

Leah Seneng, a 60-year-old California teacher, died from rabies after she was bitten last month by a bat that she found in her classroom.

A rabies exposure in Merced County has now been confirmed as fatal. Last week, the county’s department of public health reported a Fresno County resident had been exposed to the deadly virus in a possible bat bite and was being treated at a hospital. Fresno County’s Department of Public Health on Tuesday confirmed that the person has died.

Health officials are warning Californians of the dangers associated with handling wild animals after a Central Valley art teacher was bitten by a bat inside her classroom and later died of rabies. The woman died late last week,

Although extremely rare, a Central California teacher has died of rabies after a wild bat bit her in a middle school classroom. The 60-year-old Fresno woman, Leah Seneng, found what appeared to be a lifeless bat while she was teaching her Byrant Middle School students back in October.