50 Fun Facts About Rabies

What does the Latin word rabies mean?

The Greek lyssa, also 'madness', gives the virus genus its name.

By what name was rabies historically known, from victims' panic at being offered a drink?

Painful throat spasms on swallowing make drinking agonising.

Which animal causes more than 99% of human rabies deaths where the disease is common?

In the Americas, by contrast, bats are the main source and dogs cause under 5% of cases.

What is the usual incubation period between infection and first symptoms in humans?

It depends on how far the virus must travel along nerves; it can range from under a week to over a year.

What is the outcome once rabies symptoms appear?

Only a handful of people have ever been documented surviving after showing symptoms.

Roughly how many people die of rabies each year worldwide?

About 40% are children under 15, and over 95% of deaths are in Africa and Asia.

Which continent is the only one without rabies?

The disease is present in more than 150 countries; many Pacific islands are also free of it.

What percentage of victims suffer the 'furious' form of rabies?

The remaining fifth get the 'dumb' or paralytic form, which resembles Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Why do rabies victims 'foam at the mouth'?

The frothing saliva, loaded with virus, helps the disease spread by bite.

How long after first symptoms does death usually occur?

Survival once symptoms present is almost unknown even with intensive care.

To which genus of viruses does the rabies virus belong?

The genus sits within the family Rhabdoviridae.

What shape is the rabies virion?

It is about 180 nm long and 75 nm across, with one rounded and one flat end.

How many genes does the rabies virus RNA genome encode?

They are the N, P, M, G and L genes, always in the same order.

Which cell-surface molecule is the most likely entry point for the rabies virus?

After entry the virus travels backwards up the nerve axon using the motor protein dynein.

Where does the virus migrate after infecting the brain, ready to reach the next host?

That is why an infected animal's saliva is the vehicle of transmission.

Which small animals are almost never found infected with rabies?

A rabid predator would usually kill them, so they do not survive to become carriers.

Why does the Virginia opossum tend to resist rabies?

The virus thrives at higher temperatures, though the marsupial is not immune.

In which marine mammals was rabies found spreading in South Africa in 2024?

It may be the first documented outbreak in marine mammals.

Through what route have the only documented human-to-human rabies transmissions occurred?

Corneal transplants from infected donors have been the most frequent culprit.

What are the nerve-cell inclusions that are 100% diagnostic for rabies called?

They are found in only about four cases in five and are named for pathologist Adelchi Negri.

What is the WHO's reference method for diagnosing rabies?

A rabies-specific antibody tagged with fluorescein lights up viral antigen under the microscope.

Which two French scientists developed the first rabies vaccine in 1885?

They weakened the virus by drying infected rabbit nerve tissue for up to ten days.

Who was the nine-year-old Pasteur inoculated in 1885, the first person treated for rabies?

He had been badly bitten by a rabid dog; Pasteur, a chemist, had no medical licence.

What did the first person inoculated against rabies do as an adult?

He died by suicide in June 1940, ten days after German troops entered Paris.

From which animals' nerve tissue was Pasteur's original vaccine harvested?

Similar nerve-tissue vaccines are still used in some countries because they are cheap.

On what date is World Rabies Day, and why?

The first campaign ran on 8 September 2007 before settling on the Pasteur date.

Post-exposure treatment can prevent rabies if given within how many days?

The vaccine is 100% effective if given before symptoms appear; 29 million people get it yearly.

How many doses of vaccine does the US recommend after exposure, alongside immunoglobulin?

HRIG makes up most of the cost, running to thousands of dollars.

Where were the old nerve-tissue rabies vaccines painfully injected?

Modern cell-based vaccines go into the upper arm and feel like a flu shot.

What experimental treatment puts symptomatic patients into an induced coma?

It was first tried in 2004 and has since been widely judged a failure.

Who was the Wisconsin teenager who survived rabies in 2004 without prior vaccination?

She was bitten by a bat she picked up in church and needed long rehabilitation.

Where was the 2004 Wisconsin survivor bitten by the bat?

She picked it up to carry it outside and it bit her left index finger.

How many people were documented as having survived symptomatic rabies as of 2016?

A Peruvian study also found villagers with natural antibodies after vampire bat exposure.

What is the first written record of rabies?

The Mesopotamian law of about 1930 BC fined owners whose rabid dogs killed someone.

Which personification of mad rage did the ancient Greeks blame for rabies?

Her name survives in the virus genus Lyssavirus.

What did the Roman physician Scribonius Largus prescribe for rabies?

Antaeus recommended a preparation from the skull of a hanged man.

Where and when was the first rabies outbreak in the New World?

The disease appears to have originated in the Old World.

Which saint's heated 'key' was applied to bites in France and Belgium?

Dogs were branded with the key too, in a bit of magical thinking.

How did Switzerland virtually eliminate rabies in foxes?

Foxes ate the baited heads and became immune; Ontario used aerial baits.

Which country has the highest human rabies toll, about 20,000 deaths a year?

Stray dog numbers soared after a 2001 law banned killing dogs.

What mass hysteria hinders rabies treatment in the country with the most cases?

Bite victims believe puppies are growing inside them and turn to faith healers.

Which animals cause most rabies infections acquired inside the United States?

Of 89 domestic infections from 1960 to 2018, 62 came from bats, whose bites often go unnoticed.

What situation is grounds for post-exposure treatment even without a known bite?

Bat bites can be so small the sleeper never notices.

Australia is officially rabies-free but harbours which related virus in its bats?

It was identified in 1995 in a black flying fox and has killed people since 1996.

When did the last human death from indigenous rabies occur in the United Kingdom?

The last infection was in 1922; a rabies-like bat virus, EBLV-2, killed one person in 2002.

In Stephen King's Cujo, how does the Saint Bernard contract rabies?

Cujo had never been vaccinated; the 1981 novel became a film in 1983.

What attacks the family in Old Yeller, dooming the dog?

Travis shoots Old Yeller rather than risk him turning on the family.

Rabies is one theory for the mysterious 1849 death of which American writer?

Other suggestions include delirium tremens, syphilis, carbon monoxide and electoral 'cooping'.

The 'dumb' form of rabies, a progressive paralysis, resembles which other neurological condition?

Roughly one victim in five gets this form, which usually does not produce the famous fear of water.

Roughly what share of the world's annual rabies deaths are children under 15?

More than 95% of human deaths occur in Africa and Asia, and over 3 billion people live in regions where the disease is present.