Cases of rabies being reported date as far back as 300 BC, but the way this virus was spread throughout organisms was not discovered until late 1804’s. It was until 1884 that a French bacteriologist, Louis Pasteur, found a vaccine that could actually prevent rabies from infecting an organism. His methods are still used by the most recent medicine and doctors. This vaccine has greatly aided in the lowering of human deaths from this disease throughout the years.

Rabies comes from Rhabdoviridea family. This virus is a parasite since it cannot live outside a host body for mor

*The number of human deaths in the United States attributed to rabies has declined from 100 or more each year to an average of 1 or 2 each year

The host will first develop flu like symptoms, with malaise, fever, or headache, along with itchiness or discomfort at the site of the infection, lasting for days. As the disease progresses, the virus is received by the peripheral nerves and transported into the Central Nervous System, via sensory and motor nerves at the site of infection. Once this occurs, symptoms progress to cerebral dysfunction, anxiety, confusion, agitation, delirium, abnormal behavior, hallucinations, insomnia, slight paralysis, excitation, hyper salivation, difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia (the fear of water). Unfortunately, once clinical signs of the rabies virus occur in hosts, the disease is almost always fatal.

*Reported cases in raccoons and foxes decreased 0.4% and 3.5% respectively from the totals reported in 2000

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