A Fremont County woman who died of rabies last week had ties to Powell.

However, her identity is being held pending official notification.

The woman died Saturday in a hospital in Salt Lake City. This was the first recorded human case of rabies in the state of Wyoming.

According to Kim Deti, spokeswoman for the Wyoming Department of Health, a bat entered the victim’s home in August, and that is the suspected source of the rabies infection.

The Fremont County woman, whom Deti did not identify, became ill the third week in September and was transferred to a Salt Lake City hospital the following week. She died Saturday, one day after her illness was diagnosed as rabies.

As a precaution, public health officials have administered vaccinations to two of the woman’s relatives and a Utah hospital worker, according to an Associated Press story.

Only one or two cases of human rabies generally occur in the United States each year, and bats are the most common source, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Of the 19 naturally acquired cases of rabies in humans from 1997-2006, 17 were associated with bats, an entry on the CDC website states.

Among these, 14 patients had known encounters with bats. Three of the cases were identified as bat-related, but there was no history of contact with bats.

Four people awoke because a bat landed on them, and one person awoke because a bat bit him. In these cases, the bat was inside the home, according to the CDC.

“Six people had a history of handling a bat while removing it from their home. One person was bitten by a bat while releasing it outdoors after finding it on the floor inside a building. One person picked up and tried to care for a sick bat found on the ground outdoors,” the CDC’s website said.