Health officials are tracking down hundreds of visitors to Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park after discovering a ‘suspected’ bat colony inside a lodge.
Since June 2, Grand Teton Lodge Company has received eight reports of overnight guests who may have been exposed to bats in those rooms while staying at the Jackson Jake Lodge.
Dr Alexia Harrist, Wyoming’s state health officer, said bats may have been in the rooms since the season started in May, which has seen more than 200 guests since.
The National Park Service (NPS) said: ‘As a precaution, the affected rooms are closed while public health professionals conduct further assessments and provide recommendations for mitigation.’
Overnight exposure to bats is concerning because infected bats can transmit rabies through bites or scratches, which are often too small to notice.
People who cannot communicate potential exposure, like children or deep sleepers, would be considered at-risk.
While rabies can be prevented with post-exposure vaccines, it is always fatal once symptoms develop.
Although healthy bats rarely bite humans, those infected with rabies often exhibit abnormal behavior, Harrist said.
More than 200 people may have been infected with rabies after spending the night at the Jackson Jake Lodge in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park
Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming sees over three million visitors annually.
‘A suspected bat colony was recently discovered in an attic space above guest rooms 516, 518, 520, 522, 524, 526, 528 and 530 at the Jackson Lake Lodge,’ the NPS alert stated. ‘There is no immediate threat to the public.’
Bat exposure to rabies is defined as a bite or scratch from a bat to a human, contact of bat saliva with an open cut or mucous membrane, or any direct physical contact with a bat.
Exposure to bats raises particular concern because their teeth are small, and bites often do not bleed, cause pain, or leave visible marks.
As a result, a person may be unaware that they have been exposed or may mistakenly believe that a minor bite or scratch does not require medical attention.
The most common species found in the Grand Teton National Park are little brown bats, followed by big brown, silver-haired, hoary, Yuma, long-legged, and long-eared bats.
California myotis and western small-footed bats have also been identified in the park.
In a prepared statement, the park said it is working with the National Park Service, the Lodge Company and state and federal health officials to address potential guest exposures.
While rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms such as confusion, agitation, hallucinations, or difficulty swallowing appear, the regimen of vaccinations has lowered yearly deaths to fewer than 10
‘Wyoming Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are leading the effort to coordinate with the affected guests’ local public health officials, who will conduct rabies risk assessments,’ the NPS said.
‘State public health officials are reaching out to these guests directly to assess if they had exposure to a bat while staying in any of these rooms and determine if they meet the risk criteria for receiving rabies preventive treatment.
‘Individuals who meet the risk criteria for a rabies exposure will be connected with the appropriate provider in their home state for preventive treatment.’
Recently, a woman visiting the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona shared her scary encounter with a bat.
Erica Kahn was spending her vacation photographing the night sky last year when a bat flew right into her mouth.
Her father, a doctor, insisted she get vaccinated for rabies, which can spread through an animal’s saliva and is fatal almost 100 percent of the time unless treated before symptoms appear. But she didn’t have health insurance.
A generally healthy person, Kahn believed that after losing her job last summer, she could avoid paying hundreds to stay on her former employer’s insurance plan before finding another job and getting insurance through work again.
But knowing she now needed to get treatment as soon as possible, Kahn, 33, found a private health insurance policy outside of the Affordable Care Act marketplace, believing that she would be covered for the five shots she would need to get over the next two weeks.
But last fall, she began receiving medical bills that said she owed $21,000.
Believing she’d be covered as long as she got insurance before going to the hospital, Kahn said she purchased a policy online the day after the bat encounter, according to the Washington Post.
She said she called the insurer beforehand and was told that care related to an accident or a ‘life-threatening’ emergency would be included.
So Kahn, a Massachusetts resident, went to a hospital in Arizona for the requisite immunoglobulin shot needed to build antibodies against the virus.
Over the following two weeks, she got the remaining four rabies shots at clinics in Arizona and Massachusetts, as well as at a hospital in Colorado.
