What is rabies?

If you were to develop rabies rabies, you might experience intense headaches, anxiety, hallucinations, paralysis. You might salivate uncontrollably, you might be terrified by a glass of water, you might be terrified by a slight of breeze.

Following days of torturous suffering you would slip into a coma and die.

It would be very distressing for you and your family.

Rabies passes between species through a bite or scratch from an infected person or animal. We call this 'exposure to rabies'.

After 'exposure', rabies takes between 4 and 6 weeks to incubate and once you develop symptoms, death is inevitable.

However, 'exposure to rabies' can be treated. Vaccines given shortly after exposure may stop the onset of the disease. 

Rabies is the most deadly infectious disease on earth, it kills hundreds of people and animals everyday. But, together we can stop it.

To find out more watch this...

12 rabies facts

1. Rabies is caused by a virus (from the genus Lyssavirus) which attacks the nervous system.

2. Almost all human rabies cases (98%) are caused by bites from infected domestic dogs. But, all mammals can be infected with rabies and all can potentially transmit the virus to humans.

3. Following a dog bite, a victim and his or her family face weeks of anxiety, fearing that rabies may develop. If the horrifying symptoms develop, rabies is invariably fatal.

4. More than 70,000 people die of rabies every year. Most live in Africa and Asia.

5. 60-70% of victims of rabies are children aged 5-15; it is estimated that approximately 100 children die of the disease every day.

6. Every rabies death is preventable with the modern cell culture rabies vaccines and rabies immunoglobulins that are currently available.

7. The first rabies vaccination was developed by Louis Pasteur and given to Joseph Meister, boy badly bitten by a rabid dog on July 6, 1885.  Joseph survived and ultimately the Pasteur treatment was used throughout the world to save many potential victims of rabies.  Rabies vaccines were dramatically improved throughout the past century and modern cell culture rabies vaccines are virtually 100% effective to prevent rabies.

8. Rabies can be effectively controlled in animal populations through vaccination. When 70% of the dog population is vaccinated, human cases are dramatically reduced or even eliminated.

9. Wildlife populations can be threatened by rabies to the point of extinction. The rare Ethiopian wolf and the African wild dog are just 2 examples.

10. In Mexico, after 5 years of a nationwide dog vaccination campaign, the number of human rabies deaths was reduced from 60 per year to less than 20. Since then, human cases have been almost eliminated throughout the country.

11. Rabies is known as "la rage" in French, "tollwut" in German, "rabia" in Spanish, "rabbia" in Italian, "kichaa cha mwba" in Swahili.

12. In 2005, Jeanna Giese, a girl of 15 survived acute, unvaccinated rabies. She is the only person in the world to have survived acute, unvaccinated rabies.

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