Rabies horror as hundreds possibly exposed to deadly infection in bat-infested cabins

Hundreds of people may have been exposed to deadly rabies, health officials have warned, after bat-infested cabins were discovered in a major national park.

Visitors to the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, the US, are being sought after eight cabins at Jackson Lake Lodge were found to have been teeming with bats. Dozens of theanimals were discovered after they colonised the attic above the row of cabins, and several carcasses were sent to labs for testing.

While none of those samples have yet tested positive for the deadly disease, officials are now working to contact people from a number of states and countries after concluding they may have had "direct contact with a bat".

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Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, Wyoming State Health Officer Dr Alexia Harrist said that, despite the lack of positive rabies cases, officials are playing it safe given the chances of possible exposure. She warned that holidaymakers may have been bitten or scratched in their sleep, and that the relatively small wounds may have gone unnoticed.

Dr Harrist said: "What we’re really concerned about is people who saw bats in their rooms and people who might have had direct contact with a bat."

Some of the bats, the top official said, were shooed out through cabin doors and windows, and the vast majority of the cabin inhabitants never emerged from their attic hiding place. The cabins have been shut since the infestation was identified on July 27, with health chiefs issuing their alerts due to the prevalence of rabies among the local bat population.

Bats are one of the two most common rabies vectors in Wyoming, with skunks also known to spread the disease - which is deadly without immediate attention.

The National Park Service warns that potential exposure is "treated very seriously", although the general risk to visitors and cases of the disease are low. Nevertheless, thousands of rabies cases are reported in animals across the US per year, with one to three human cases.

Anyone who has potential exposure to the rabies virus must receive an immunoglobulin vaccine before symptoms appear, as, once they do, the disease is invariably fatal.

Symptoms initially include a fever, headache and bite site discomfort, and progress into confusion, muscle spasms, and difficulty swallowing, a hallmark symptom known as hydrophobia. Typically, the time between bite and symptom onset is around two to three months - although it can take more than a year in some cases - and death follows within two to 10 days.

Post-exposure treatments are most effective soon after exposure, and health officials are attempting to contact roughly 500 people believed to have stayed in the cabins after they opened in May.

Those 500 are split across 38 states and seven nations, and Dr Harrist said people who stayed in cabins 516, 518, 520, 522, 524, 526, 528 and 530 this year should tell health officials or their doctors immediately.