50 free Rabies trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Rabies is the disease that turns a bite into a death sentence and yet is almost perfectly preventable if you act in time. This quiz covers it from a Mesopotamian law code to a bat in a Wisconsin church. The easy questions ask what animal causes most human deaths, why it was called hydrophobia, who made the first vaccine, whether rodents carry it and what happens once symptoms start. From there it moves into the biology: the lyssavirus family, the bullet-shaped virion, the five genes, the slow crawl up the nerves at a centimetre an hour, the salivary glands, the furious and paralytic forms and the Negri bodies that prove the diagnosis. The harder end is for medics and history buffs: the Codex of Eshnunna, Lyssa the spirit of rage, hyena-skin poultices, St Hubert's Key, Boston's 1768 outbreak, Roux's dried rabbit spinal cords, nine-year-old Joseph Meister and his sad end in 1940, the Milwaukee protocol's induced coma, Jeanna Giese, the fourteen documented survivors, Peruvian villagers with natural antibodies, vaccine-laced chicken heads in the Swiss Alps, puppy pregnancy syndrome, Cape fur seals, Australian bat lyssavirus, and why an unnoticed bat in the bedroom means a trip to the hospital. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the disease, its virus and its history, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Louis Pasteur, infectious diseases and bats quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the Latin word rabies mean?
Madness
The Greek lyssa, also 'madness', gives the virus genus its name.
Q 02By what name was rabies historically known, from victims' panic at being offered a drink?
Hydrophobia
Painful throat spasms on swallowing make drinking agonising.
Q 03Which animal causes more than 99% of human rabies deaths where the disease is common?
Dogs
In the Americas, by contrast, bats are the main source and dogs cause under 5% of cases.
Q 04What is the usual incubation period between infection and first symptoms in humans?
One to three months
It depends on how far the virus must travel along nerves; it can range from under a week to over a year.
Q 05What is the outcome once rabies symptoms appear?
Almost always death
Only a handful of people have ever been documented surviving after showing symptoms.
Q 06Roughly how many people die of rabies each year worldwide?
59,000
About 40% are children under 15, and over 95% of deaths are in Africa and Asia.
Q 07Which continent is the only one without rabies?
Antarctica
The disease is present in more than 150 countries; many Pacific islands are also free of it.
Q 08What percentage of victims suffer the 'furious' form of rabies?
80%
The remaining fifth get the 'dumb' or paralytic form, which resembles Guillain-Barré syndrome.
Q 09Why do rabies victims 'foam at the mouth'?
Saliva overproduction and inability to swallow
The frothing saliva, loaded with virus, helps the disease spread by bite.
Q 10How long after first symptoms does death usually occur?
Two to ten days
Survival once symptoms present is almost unknown even with intensive care.
Q 11To which genus of viruses does the rabies virus belong?
Lyssavirus
The genus sits within the family Rhabdoviridae.
Q 12What shape is the rabies virion?
Bullet-shaped
It is about 180 nm long and 75 nm across, with one rounded and one flat end.
Q 13How many genes does the rabies virus RNA genome encode?
5
They are the N, P, M, G and L genes, always in the same order.
Q 14Which cell-surface molecule is the most likely entry point for the rabies virus?
Q 21What is the WHO's reference method for diagnosing rabies?
The fluorescent antibody test
A rabies-specific antibody tagged with fluorescein lights up viral antigen under the microscope.
Q 22Which two French scientists developed the first rabies vaccine in 1885?
Louis Pasteur and Émile Roux
They weakened the virus by drying infected rabbit nerve tissue for up to ten days.
Q 23Who was the nine-year-old Pasteur inoculated in 1885, the first person treated for rabies?
Joseph Meister
Acetylcholine receptor
After entry the virus travels backwards up the nerve axon using the motor protein dynein.
Q 15Where does the virus migrate after infecting the brain, ready to reach the next host?
The salivary glands
That is why an infected animal's saliva is the vehicle of transmission.
Q 16Which small animals are almost never found infected with rabies?
Rodents and rabbits
A rabid predator would usually kill them, so they do not survive to become carriers.
Q 17Why does the Virginia opossum tend to resist rabies?
Its lower body temperature
The virus thrives at higher temperatures, though the marsupial is not immune.
Q 18In which marine mammals was rabies found spreading in South Africa in 2024?
Cape fur seals
It may be the first documented outbreak in marine mammals.
Q 19Through what route have the only documented human-to-human rabies transmissions occurred?
Organ transplants
Corneal transplants from infected donors have been the most frequent culprit.
Q 20What are the nerve-cell inclusions that are 100% diagnostic for rabies called?
Negri bodies
They are found in only about four cases in five and are named for pathologist Adelchi Negri.
He had been badly bitten by a rabid dog; Pasteur, a chemist, had no medical licence.
Q 24What did the first person inoculated against rabies do as an adult?
Caretaker at the Pasteur Institute
He died by suicide in June 1940, ten days after German troops entered Paris.
Q 25From which animals' nerve tissue was Pasteur's original vaccine harvested?
Rabbits
Similar nerve-tissue vaccines are still used in some countries because they are cheap.
Q 26On what date is World Rabies Day, and why?
28 September, Pasteur's death anniversary
The first campaign ran on 8 September 2007 before settling on the Pasteur date.
Q 27Post-exposure treatment can prevent rabies if given within how many days?
10
The vaccine is 100% effective if given before symptoms appear; 29 million people get it yearly.
Q 28How many doses of vaccine does the US recommend after exposure, alongside immunoglobulin?
4 over 14 days
HRIG makes up most of the cost, running to thousands of dollars.
Q 29Where were the old nerve-tissue rabies vaccines painfully injected?
The abdomen
Modern cell-based vaccines go into the upper arm and feel like a flu shot.
Q 30What experimental treatment puts symptomatic patients into an induced coma?
The Milwaukee protocol
It was first tried in 2004 and has since been widely judged a failure.