The woman appears to have contracted the disease from a bat

Oct 7, 2015 16:05 GMT  ·  By

Over the weekend, on October 3, an elderly woman living in Fremont County, Wyoming, passed away after contracting rabies, a viral disease that is spread by animals and that medical experts say causes severe inflammation of the brain. 

It is estimated that, each year, rabies kills around 59,000 people. Most of these deaths, however, happen in Africa or Asia. In the US, specialists put the number of rabies cases reported annually at just 1 to 3. In fact, it is said that, until this one time, Wyoming had never before had a rabies patient to deal with.

Besides, experts say that, thanks to ongoing vaccination programs and animal control, the number of people killed by this viral disease in the US annually has been steadily declining since the 1970s. These days, rabies is only common among animals, and even so not all that many cases are reported.

“Rabies vaccination programs have eliminated domestic dogs as reservoirs of rabies in the United States,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention writes in a statement.

“We still see 80 - 100 dogs and >300 cats with rabies each year, usually infected by wildlife when these domesticated pets are not vaccinated against rabies,” the organization goes on to explain.

And yet rabies was diagnosed in Wyoming

This viral disease might not be a common occurrence in the US, but it can happen. As mentioned, rabies is transmitted when an infected animal bites or maybe only scratches another animal or human.

Due to inflammation in the brain, people who contract rabies usually display symptoms such as paralysis, behavioral changes, hallucinations or weakness, specialists explain.

Reports say the 77-year-old woman who was killed by rabies in Fremont County, Wyoming, just days ago most likely contracted the disease sometime towards the end of August, when she was bitten by a bat.

Rather than seek medical help, the woman chose to ignore the incident. About a month after having been bitten, however, she started feeling ill. She was admitted to the hospital but doctors failed to save her as the infection was already too advanced to contain and treat.

“Unfortunately, rabies is a serious, deadly disease once the illness develops,” specialist Karl Musgrave with the Wyoming Department of Health told the press in an interview.

Health officials hope it was just an isolated occurrence

Since it was weeks before the 77-year-old woman sought medical help and was admitted to the hospital, where she was at long last diagnosed with rabies, health officials are now trying to track down the people who had close contact with her while she was ill.

They want to make sure that the viral disease hasn't spread and that the general population is safe. Experts recommend that, to stay safe from this disease, people keep away from wildlife and go see a doctor if and when an animal bites or scratches them.