Health officers are working on alerting hundreds of people in dozens of states and several countries, which have been exposed to rabies in bat cabins in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming in recent months.
Until Friday, none of the bats in some of the eight connected cabins in the Jackson Lake Lodge had tested positively for rabies.
But the handful of dead bats, which were found for the veterinary laboratory of Wyoming State in Laramie for testing, were probably only a small sample of the likely dozens that colonized the attic over Kabinenstrasse, said Dr. Alexia Harrist, health officer of Wyoming.
Other bats were not killed, but were shot by cabin doors and windows. In the meantime, the vast majority never fluttered from the attic into living rooms.
Health officers therefore considered it better to be safe to be sure than everyone who has recently remained in the cabins that they may have been bitten or scratched. Especially when people sleep, a bite or a scratch can remain unnoticed and unnoticed.
“What we are really concerned are people who saw bats in their rooms, and people who may have had direct contact with a bat,” said Harrist on Friday.
The cabins were not filled without the reopening opened because the concessionaire's Grand Teton Lodge Company discovered the bat problem on July 27.
Bats are a frequent vector of the rabies virus. As soon as symptoms occur – muscle pain, vomiting, itching, to name just a few – is almost always fatal in humans.
The good news is a prophylactic five-shot regime over a period of two weeks, shortly after the exposure prevents diseases, Harrist stated.
The cabins opened for the summer season in May after they were free in winter. Based on the approximately 250 reservations by the end of July, the health officers estimated that up to 500 people had stayed in the cabins.
They tried to reach people in 38 states and seven countries by the health authorities of these countries, and in the case of foreign visitors centers for the control and prevention of diseases.
Others who have not yet been alerted, but in the cabins 516, 518, 520, 522, 524, 526, 528 and 530 this year should immediately inform the healthcare officers or a doctor this year, said Harrist.
Health officers recommended prophylactic recordings for people who adapt certain criteria, such as:
The Wyoming Ministry of Health had no continuing concern about the safety of visitors in the Jackson Lake Lodge region. This includes an economic policy symposium of the Federal Reserve, which takes place every summer in the Jackson Lake Lodge.
“The Lodge Company has done fantastic work to make sure that everyone who stands for it and will be as safe as possible for all other visits this year,” said Emily Curren, Veterinarinian of Wyoming.
“Three or four” dead bats from the cabins that were tested negatively, and one that was mutilated did not have enough brain tissue to be testable, said Curren.
Everyone was brown bats that are available in two ways: “small” and “large”, with the larger ones more than twice as large. Officials were not sure what types of these were, but both are common in Wyoming.
They usually live in colonies of 30 to 100 people, said Curren.
“These are a lot of bats that we cannot rule out that rabies are rabies,” said Curren. “There is no way for us to surely know about every single bat that gets into these rooms.”
There are no plans to eradicate the bats, said Emily Davis, spokeswoman for Grand Teton National Park. Devices that were attached to the building prevent the bats from getting back to dinner after the trip to insects, they said.
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