RABIES IS a viral infection transmitted to humans by animals, usually following a bite. It affects the nervous system causing a progressive inflammation of the brain tissue (enchepalitis).
Considered universally fatal, there has been just one documented survivor of rabies among victims who had not been vaccinated against the disease.
In 2006, two human cases were reported by the World Health Organisation in its European region. This is against a background of over 9,000 documented cases of animal rabies in the same catchment area.
There are almost 55,000 human rabies deaths in the world per year, mainly in Asia and Africa, with up to half of cases affecting children. Rabies is also found in Central and South America. Travellers to remote areas of these regions should discuss the need for immunisation with their doctor. In Europe, foxes and bats carry the rabies virus. Dog rabies is confined to some east European countries. Contracting rabies usually requires a deep bite from a rabid animal. It is possible, but very rare, to contract rabies if infectious saliva from a rabid animal gets directly into a person’s eye, nose, or mouth or through a pre-existing wound.
By the time rabies symptoms develop, the disease has established itself in the nervous system and is almost always fatal.
Initial symptoms include feeling very tired, running a high temperature and headache. These are followed by convulsions and muscle paralysis.
A particular feature of rabies infection is the development of hydrophobia, where the victim is unable to even swallow water such is the extent of spasm of the throat muscles. Coma and death follow between 10 and 30 days after symptoms appear.