THE State Government is stocking up on the rabies vaccine as an eight-year-old boy carrying a deadly bat-borne virus continued to fight for his life yesterday.

The Cairns boy, who remained in a critical but stable condition in a Brisbane hospital late yesterday, is believed to have contracted the lyssavirus after being scratched or bitten by a bat in the Whitsundays while on holiday two months ago.

His distressed family have appealed for privacy.

Queensland Health confirmed it has ordered extra supplies of the rabies vaccine and immunoglobulin - which are then combined and administered as an injection to people who have potentially been exposed to Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV).

Some extra supplies have already been distributed to key state hospitals.

It comes after Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young urged anyone who had been bitten or scratched by a bat to seek medical advice.

Only two other ABLV cases have been confirmed in Australia - with both victims dying in Queensland in the 1990s.

The virus causes paralysis, delirium and convulsions.

"The extra vaccine and immunoglobulin has been distributed as a precaution to meet a possible increase in presentations from people who may have been exposed to ABLV in the past but did not seek treatment at the time," a Queensland Health statement said.

"People who have had a potential exposure to ABLV require an injection of rabies immunoglobulin and a series of rabies vaccine injections."