title: Human Rabies - Wyoming and Utah, 2015.
abstract: In September 2015, a Wyoming woman was admitted to a local hospital with a 5-day history of progressive weakness, ataxia, dysarthria, and dysphagia. Because of respiratory failure, she was transferred to a referral hospital in Utah, where she developed progressive encephalitis. On day 8 of hospitalization, the patient's family told clinicians they recalled that, 1 month before admission, the woman had found a bat on her neck upon waking, but had not sought medical care. The patient's husband subsequently had contacted county invasive species authorities about the incident, but he was not advised to seek health care for evaluation of his wife's risk for rabies. On October 2, CDC confirmed the patient was infected with a rabies virus variant that was enzootic to the silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans). The patient died on October 3. Public understanding of rabies risk from bat contact needs to be improved; cooperation among public health and other agencies can aid in referring persons with possible bat exposure for assessment of rabies risk.
authors.forename: Alexia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harrist
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Styczynski
authors.forename: DonRaphael
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wynn
authors.forename: Safdar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ansari
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hopkin
authors.forename: Harry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rosado-Santos
authors.forename: JoDee
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Allyn
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakashima
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Atkinson
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spencer
authors.forename: Debbie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dean
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Teachout
authors.forename: Jeanmarie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: Rene E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Condori
authors.forename: Lillian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Orciari
authors.forename: Ashutosh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wadhwa
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ellison
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niezgoda
authors.forename: Brett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Musgrave
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology; D016358:Contact Tracing; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D056990:Post-Exposure Prophylaxis; D015980:Public Health Practice; D011818:Rabies / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011820:Rabies virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014589:Utah; D014959:Wyoming