Cortez woman may have rabies

Cortez woman may have rabies

October 18, 2001

By Jim Mimiaga
Journal Staff Writer

A Cortez woman who was reportedly bitten by a rabid cat while living in Georgia may have contracted the deadly disease and, if so, treatment could be too late, health officials fear.

Emergency doctors at Southwest Memorial Hospital transported the 20-year-old veterinary worker to University Hospital in Denver on Monday after she showed symptoms of rabies, a deadly virus that destroys the body’s central nervous system.

As of press time, officials with the Colorado Department of Health and Environment had not confirmed whether she had rabies or some other neurological disease that produces similar symptoms.

"We are awaiting preliminary lab results from multiple tests that will determine if it is or isn’t rabies," said John Pape, an epidemiologist with the state health department on Wednesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been notified of the potential infection.

"It is a matter of ruling out other viral diseases that affect the nervous system like herpes or West Nile Virus," Pape said.

Rabies is treatable with a series of vaccines if they are administered soon after infection by a rabid animal. The virus hides in nerve cells to incubate. Once the virus goes through its incubation period, which can be between two weeks and a year, symptoms such as anxiety, hallucinations, high fever and water phobia begin to show. At that point, the disease is 100 percent fatal.

Pape said that the patient is still alive, but no further details about her condition were released. If confirmed, thiswould be the first human rabies case in Colorado since 1931. Nationwide, there are about two cases of human rabies per year, Pape said.

Southwest’s ER director, Dr. Michael Duehrssen, treated the patient and felt there was sufficient suspicion to alert health officials and transfer the woman to a higher-level hospital with infectious-disease experts. She was self-admitted on Monday and taken by air to Denver that afternoon.

Her name was not available, but she reportedly worked for a local veterinarian.

"It was diagnosed as a possible case of rabies, which is very rare," Duehrssen said. "Multiple tests were conducted and sent off to the labs in Denver."

Duehrssen would not elaborate on the patient’s symptoms, but other sources reported them to be dementia, incoherent rambling, excessive salivation and high fever.

By themselves, those ailments indicate several possible health problems. But once health officials learned that she was in contact with a rabid cat, emergency procedures were triggered.

Officials stressed that the patient was not exposed locally. She came in contact with the disease in Georgia, where she worked for a veterinarian, according to Montezuma County Health Department Director Lori Cooper. Cooper said the woman was bitten by a cat at an animal clinic, and the animal later tested positive for rabies.

But efforts by authorities to contact the woman were unsuccessful because she had moved and left no forwarding address.

"She did not know the cat had tested positive, and they did not know where she was," Cooper said. "That’s a very serious situation" because there is no cure if preventive measures are not taken right away.

Cooper said, if there is rabies confirmation, an investigation will ensue to identify those who had been in contact with the woman. A series of vaccines will then be administered to the potential victims.

At least six hospital staff members were in contact with the woman, along with her family, hospital officials said. However, Pape said it is rare forthe disease tobe spread from human to human.

"The reason is that in this country, if someone comes up with rabies, everyone exposed to that person is identified and given preventive treatment," Pape said. "The virus is found in the saliva, so spouses would especially need preventive treatment."

There are 7,000 reported cases of rabid animals every year in the United States, according to the state department of health. Cooper said a rabid cat was found in Montezuma County two years ago. Bats, skunks and prairie dogs can be carriers and should be avoided.