Rabies

[rynner2]

Northern Va. Man First Reported U.S. Human Death from Raccoon Rabies

Atlanta (AP) - Scientists have documented the first human death in the United States from raccoon rabies. And the victim is from northern Virginia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today that a 25-year-old office worker died in March from rabies. The man, who was not identified, was hospitalized in mid-February with flu-like symptoms. He died after 14 days in the hospital.

Genetic analysis of tissue samples by the CDC (website/news) determined the man had gotten rabies from a raccoon.

Doctors could not figure out how or when the man became infected, despite extensive interviews with relatives, friends and co-workers.

The Virginia case is the only death reported so far in 2003.

Virginia's last fatal rabies case was in December 1998, when a prisoner died at the Nottoway Correctional Center in Burkeville.

 

[MrRING]

Rabies Victim Survives Without Vaccine

1st Unvaccinated Rabies Survivor Goes Home

WAUWATOSA, Wis. - A teenager who became the first person known to survive rabies without a vaccination went home Saturday after nearly 11 weeks in the hospital, officials said. Jeanna Giese, 15, was infected when a bat bit her at church in September but she did not immediately seek treatment. She began showing symptoms of rabies in mid-October.

"My biggest goal when this started, when I walked through those doors downstairs, was to someday take my daughter through those doors back out, and today that gets to happen," Giese's father, John Giese, said Saturday before the family left the hospital. A team of physicians at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin gambled on an experimental treatment and induced a coma as part of efforts to stave off the usually fatal infection.

Only five people besides Giese are known to have survived the rabies virus after the onset of symptoms. But unlike Giese, they had either been vaccinated or had received a series of rabies vaccine shots before showing symptoms. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) has said it is re-evaluating its approach to human rabies because of the results.

In recent weeks, Giese has worked to regain her weight, strength and coordination, although she will need physical and occupational therapy. One of Giese's doctors, Rodney Willoughby, said the girl's treatment must be duplicated in another person before it can be credited as a rabies treatment.

"I don't recommend you do stuff before you try them on animals but in this case we didn't have time," he said. "This was stitched together in four hours, discussed in an hour. It just turned out we were very lucky. Jeanna was very lucky."

Source

[Emp edit: Fixing BBcode to stop link from brekaing the board.]

 

[Stormkhan]

According to this report, rabies has a higher mortality rate than ebola! While the chances of 'natural' survival were slim, I didn't think it was 99.9% fatal!
However, this wasn't untreated rabies - they were treating her but with a different method to vaccination, i.e. induced coma.
Anyhow, I thought vaccination was a preventative, not a cure. And what made the doctors, or her family, willing to take the risk of 'new treatment' if the chances of non-vaccinated survival were that slim?

One of Giese's doctors, Rodney Willoughby, said the girl's treatment must be duplicated in another person before it can be credited as a rabies treatment.

So ... anyone who wants to risk death on an uncertainty, one step forward!

 

[Cult_of_Mana]

They probably didn't have any choice, Stormkhan.

The vaccines have to be administered immediately following a bite from an infected animal. When the girl arrived at the hospital they must have realised that she'd been infected weeks ago and decided upon this experimental treatment.

 

[lopaka]

Re: This is SO nasty...

Rabies-infected organs kill 3 patients

Thursday, July 1, 2004 Posted: 7:22 PM EDT (2322 GMT)

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Rabies spread by organs taken from an infected donor has killed three transplant recipients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

"This has never happened before," said Dr. Mitch Cohen, an infectious disease expert at the CDC, in a conference call with reporters.

A fourth recipient died during the actual transplant operation, before there was time to develop the disease, officials said.

Rabies was also determined to be responsible for the death of the organ donor.

The unprecedented case began nearly two months ago, shortly after an Arkansas man suffered a brain hemorrhage and died at Christus Saint Michael Healthcare Center in Texarkana, Texas.

The man's lungs, kidneys and liver were transplanted May 4.

The impact of the virus began to emerge within weeks.

The liver recipient died June 7; one kidney recipient died June 8 and the other kidney recipient died June 21. The patient who died was undergoing lung transplant surgery.



http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/07/01/rabies.organ.transplant/index.html

And it's happened again less than a year later.

Transplants spread rabies
Three people received tainted organs from same infected woman

18. Februar 2005 F.A.Z. Weekly. Three people contracted rabies after receiving organs from a woman who was infected with the illness, officials confirmed on Thursday.

The three patients in Hanover, Marburg and Hannoversch-Münden are in critical condition, according to the German Organ Transplantation Foundation. The foundation in Neu-Isenburg near Frankfurt announced the suspected rabies cases on Wednesday, and subsequent tests confirmed the suspicion a day later.

The 26-year-old woman who donated the organs had not shown any symptoms when she died of heart failure in December after consuming cocaine and ecstasy. Doctors said she probably caught the virus during a trip to India in October.

”There is no more doubt about the diagnosis,” said Herbert Schmitz, director of the Virology Department at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg.

Donors are not tested for the fatal disease because there is not enough time between the point that an organ is removed and transplanted.
”There's never been anything like this in Germany before,” said Günter Kirste, head of the donor foundation. ”But we are aware of a similar case in the United States from last summer.”

Three other patients who received transplants from the same woman were not showing signs of the disease. Doctors said one patient in Heidelberg who received a liver and two people in Mainz who received corneas were in stable condition.

Doctors said there was little hope for a woman in Hanover who received a lung transplant and a man in Hannoversch-Münden near Kassel who received a kidney transplant. A man in Marburg who received a pancreas and kidney is also in critical condition. Many of the people who have come in contact with these three patients have been given the rabies vaccine as a precaution.

The 26-year-old donor had her organs removed at the university hospital in Mainz. Thirty hospital employees who came in contact with the woman have received immunizations against the disease, said Dr. Manfred Thelen, medical director at the hospital. He said there was little risk the virus would spread.

He also said doctors could not reject every donor who had traveled to high risk areas or used illegal drugs. ”As scary as this case is - many more patients die because there are no organs available,” Thelen said.
Rabies is a viral infection of the central nervous system in such animals as dogs and bats. In humans, symptoms include fever, spasms of the throat muscles and extreme salivation. Once symptoms develop, death usually follows.

Rabies has been almost entirely eliminated in Germany, but around two cases appear each year, according to the Nocht institute. ”All were brought in from other countries,” Gerd-Dieter Burchard told the dpa news agency. ”Before traveling to [tropical] areas, people should talk to their doctors.” An estimated 30,000 to 50,000 people die of rabies in India each year.


© F.A.Z. Electronic Media GmbH 2001 - 2005

SOURCE

 

[ramonmercado]

A Russian doctor has lost his job after telling a girl bitten by a stray dog to go to church rather than receive a rabies vaccine, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.

The hospital, based in the city of Dalnegorsk in Russia’s Far East, had ran out of the life-saving medicine, Interfax reported.

Instead, the doctor told the child’s parents to “go to church and light a candle to pray that the dog was healthy."

"We have conducted a thorough check-up to ensure that rabies vaccines are available in every institution in the region,” said Pavel Serebryakov, vice governor for the Primorye region.

“The failure which occurred in Dalnegorsk hospital defies explanation,” he said.

The child was able to receive the vaccination, Serebryakov confirmed.

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-doctor-fired-for-advising-church-over-rabies-vaccine-55696

 

[EnolaGaia]

This story is a reminder that rabies is still a lethal threat ...

Doctors Thought a Woman Was Having a Panic Attack. She Actually Had Rabies.
When a Virginia woman went to the emergency room with shortness of breath, anxiety, sleeping troubles and difficulty swallowing water, doctors thought she was having a panic attack. But her symptoms were actually due to something much rarer: she had a rabies infection — one that would prove fatal — which she contracted from a dog bite while on a yoga retreat in India, according to a new report.

The case marks only the ninth time in the past decade that a person has died from rabies in the U.S. from an infection acquired abroad, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The tragic case highlights the need for travelers to be aware of the risks of rabies when visiting certain countries and to receive "preexposure" rabies vaccines before travel when recommended, the report said. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/64425-rabies-yoga-retreat-india.html

 

[ramonmercado]

Never know when a rabid bat will appear and bite you.

An 86-year-old man is being treated for rabies after being bitten by a bat wedged between the back of his iPad and its case.

Roy Syvertson, from New Hampshire in the US, told WMUR-TV that he had been using the tablet for about an hour before the creature popped its head out and nipped him.

https://news.sky.com/story/man-trea...srtp-cIHo0IhP8uH0X3c6MOs1yai4tOVXQB_5kc6SltsM

 

[EnolaGaia]

Here's some historical background on the disease ...

The earliest record of canine rabies appears in Mesopotamian cuneiform law tablets from about 2000 BC. The codex set a heavy fine for any dog owner who allowed a dog with symptoms of the disease to bite another person. The disease’s zoonotic ability to jump from animals to humans is thought to have originated in Mesopotamia, reaching China in the sixth century BC. Rabies was known in ancient Anatolia by the fifth century BC, mentioned by Xenophon and Aristotle. As rabies spread to Italy and Europe, many Byzantine doctors and medieval medical writers described the symptoms and course of the dread disease (animal symptoms include snapping and biting, excessive drooling, hydrophobia).

Rabies arrived in Greece in the fifth century BC. The ancient temple of Athena at Rhocca (Crete) was notorious for rabid dogs. Athena of Rhocca was invoked to cure human victims of rabies. In about AD 200, the natural historian Aelian described an experiment to cure some young boys who had been bitten by rabid dogs near Rhocca, whose ruins are found south of Methymna, Crete. A doctor administered the toxic stomach acid of seahorses to his patients in an attempt to counteract the mad dog “venom.” This early attempt to fight poison/venom with another poison/venom (anticipating the principles of vaccines, chemotherapy, and venomics) failed and the stricken boys died.

SOURCE: https://io9.gizmodo.com/was-rabies-used-an-ancient-biological-weapon-827788021

 

[EnolaGaia]

This Live Science article considers the notion of rabies as one factor or source of tropes that contributed to legends of vampires and / or werewolves. Here's the article's introductory section. Go to the link (below) to read more about the possible connections with werewolf / vampire legends.

How Rabies Inspired Folktales of Werewolves and Vampires

By Jessica Wang - Associate Professor of U.S. History, University of British Columbia

In 1855, a story about the gruesome murder of a bride by her new husband started it all.

In 1855, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the gruesome murder of a bride by her new husband. The story came from the French countryside, where the woman's parents had initially prevented the couple's engagement "on account of the strangeness of conduct sometimes observed in the young man," although he "otherwise was a most eli[g]ible match."

The parents eventually consented, and the marriage took place. Shortly after the newlyweds withdrew to consummate their bond, "fearful shrieks" came from their quarters. People quickly arrived to find "the poor girl… in the agonies of death — her bosom torn open and lacerated in a most horrible manner, and the wretched husband in a fit of raving madness and covered with blood, having actually devoured a portion of the unfortunate girl's breast."

The bride died a short time later. Her husband, after "a most violent resistance," also expired.

What could have caused this horrifying incident? "It was then recollected, in answer to searching questions by a physician," that the groom had previously "been bitten by a strange dog." The passage of madness from dog to human seemed like the only possible reason for the grisly turn of events. ...

The Eagle described the episode matter-of-factly as "a sad and distressing case of hydrophobia," or, in today's parlance, rabies.

But the account read like a Gothic horror story. It was essentially a werewolf narrative: The mad dog's bite caused a hideous metamorphosis, which transformed its human victim into a nefarious monster whose vicious sexual impulses led to obscene and loathsome violence.

My new book, "Mad Dogs and Other New Yorkers: Rabies, Medicine, and Society in an American Metropolis, 1840-1920," explores the hidden meanings behind the ways people talked about rabies. Variants of the rabid groom story had been told and retold in English language newspapers in North America since at least the beginning of the 18th century, and they continued to appear as late as the 1890s. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/rabies-inspired-werewolf-vampire-folktales.html

 

[brownmane]

I just listened to this podcast yesterday. "Act 1" is a true story of a woman who was attacked by a rabid raçcoon. The description of what rabies does is, to me, fairly gruesome.

And I will warn that the story may bother some who are sensitive to cruelty towards animals as the raccoon is dispatched in a very nasty manner.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/319/and-the-call-was-coming-from-the-basement

 

[EnolaGaia]

An 87-year-old Illinois man bitten on the neck by a rabid bat has become the latest (rare) US fatality from the disease. To be fair, he declined to undertake immediate treatment, so his death was practically guaranteed if he'd really been infected.

Illinois man dies of rabies after state's first human case in 70 years

An Illinois man who was bit by a bat last month and subsequently died has been diagnosed with rabies, becoming the first known human case of the virus in the state in nearly 70 years, officials said.

State health officials said in a statement that the case was identified as a Lake County resident in his 80s who was bitten in the neck by a bat in mid-August. ...

The bat, officials said, was captured and tested positive for the virus. However, the man declined treatment for the disease despite being advised to start post-exposure medicine, and later began to experience neck pain, headaches, difficulty controlling his arms and other symptoms consistent with rabies, before succumbing to the disease.

The Illinois Department of Public Health said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the diagnosis on Tuesday. ...

The federal agency said only 25 cases of the disease have been reported in the country between 2009 and 2018, with seven of them having contracted the virus outside the country. Of those 25 cases, all but two died. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/09/29/Illinois-man-dies-rabies/7711632903309/

 

[Lb8535]

An 87-year-old Illinois man bitten on the neck by a rabid bat has become the latest (rare) US fatality from the disease. To be fair, he declined to undertake immediate treatment, so his death was practically guaranteed if he'd really been infected.

FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/09/29/Illinois-man-dies-rabies/7711632903309/

Interesting - this is one situation in which blood contact almost always (in the 99%+ range) leads to fatal illness and in which the vaccine always is preventive, so that rabies vaccine deniers are non-existent. There is also a preventive vaccine that forestry workers can take. If other disease courses were as clear as this we would not be in the situation we are in now.

 

[Endlessly Amazed]

I have had the rabies vaccine. Decades ago, the old style one, with 21 injections to the abdomen. I was roaming the boonies in Arizona, with my doberman, when I was jumped from behind and knocked to the ground by a coyote. Oddly, my main emotional reaction was one of embarrassment. I had slobber on my neck and jaw. My dog jumped in to defend me, and the three of us rolled around on the ground for a bit before the coyote ran away.

The coyote was later shot by a canal worker for weird behavior, but by the time the head was delivered to the lab, it had gotten too hot, the brain had deteriorated, and so a definite rabies diagnosis was not possible.

All of my dog’s veterinarians were preventatively inoculated for rabies, as it is endemic here in the desert. One of them was attacked by a rabid cow, and was quite bit up. After that, he only treated small animals, like my doberman.

 

[Lb8535]

A rabid cow? we don't have those here.

 

[Endlessly Amazed]

A rabid cow? we don't have those here.

Any mammal can get and give it. Hearing from that vet his experience certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities. If I recall correctly, he spent some time in the hospital recovering from the attack, which included a broken arm.

lb8535, what country are you in? I am in the US, which I now know is quite Fortean.

 

[Lb8535]

Currently upstate ny. Never heard rabies associated with cattle. Bats, raccons, foxes. cats,dogs, squirrels are the usual warnings. Rare to get a cow bite. Do cows get annual shots?

 

[Endlessly Amazed]

Currently upstate ny. Never heard rabies associated with cattle. Bats, raccons, foxes. cats,dogs, squirrels are the usual warnings. Rare to get a cow bite. Do cows get annual shots?

I don't know. I don't think so as its generally not needed. But, my vet was so severely injured from the rare rabid cow that he changed his practice from ranching and large animals to dogs and cats. I think that in NA, the further south you live, the more species of mammals can have rabies.

When I lived in Virginia, beavers and porcupines were on the list.

!! Hey - this cow attack confirms that cows are bastards!!! there is bastard cow thread somewhere.

 

[EnolaGaia]

!! Hey - this cow attack confirms that cows are bastards!!! there is bastard cow thread somewhere.

Reports of dangerous cows are concentrated in:

Cows
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/cows.24072/

 

[EnolaGaia]

“Rabies can occur in all warm-blooded animals and is almost always fatal,” Douglas said. “Rabies is caused by a virus that affects the nervous system and is transmitted by the saliva of an infected animal, usually via a bite or by saliva coming in contact with mucous membranes (eyes, nose, or mouth) or an opening in the skin. Rabies is uncommon in cattle but there can be some instances when cases in nearby wildlife increase because there are more opportunities for exposure.”

Infected animals exhibit a few common behavioral patterns owners can watch out for in their herds.

“Anorexia, itching, impaired coordination, lameness, hypersalivation, the appearance of choking, and bellowing are some of the signs of rabies in cattle,” Douglas said.

Affected animals may also exhibit aggressive behavior, muscle spasms, convulsions, and anxiety.

THE WARNING SIGNS OF RABIES IN CATTLE
https://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/pet-talk/rabies-in-cattle/

 

[Nosmo King]

I don't know. I don't think so as its generally not needed. But, my vet was so severely injured from the rare rabid cow that he changed his practice from ranching and large animals to dogs and cats. I think that in NA, the further south you live, the more species of mammals can have rabies.

When I lived in Virginia, beavers and porcupines were on the list.

!! Hey - this cow attack confirms that cows are bastards!!! there is bastard cow thread somewhere.

One of the most deadly animals there is are cows

Cows are responsible for an average of 22 human deaths in the U.S. each year.

https://www.defenders.org/publicati...wQFnoECEEQBQ&usg=AOvVaw3ETxXzq9EGBStv45T0WnHN

 

[brownmane]

Currently upstate ny. Never heard rabies associated with cattle. Bats, raccons, foxes. cats,dogs, squirrels are the usual warnings. Rare to get a cow bite. Do cows get annual shots?

Cattle don’t get annual shots, though if exposed to a rabies vector, they have to be vaccinated. I grew up on a dairy farm and remember of one time that a rabid fox got into our barn. All of the cattle, as well as our little dog (part chihuahua, part dachshund) who decided to take it on, had to be vaccinated.

Two years ago a coworker was settling her daughter into a convent that rented rooms to students, and got bitten and scratched by the resident cat. This happened in US and she spoke to the health unit when she got home (Canada). It was some work to get in touch with the convent to get proof that the cat had been vaccinated against rabies, and the coworker was strongly counselled to get the rabies shot immediately as once any symptoms become apparent, it has already caused damage to the central nervous system, and there is little to be done at that point.

One of my nieces volunteered for a wildlife rescue/rehab sanctuary and in order for her to work with any rabies vector animals eg. foxes, bats, raccoon, she had to be vaccinated against rabies.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Tennessee authorities will be air-dropping bait-covered rabies vaccine in the state's eastern mountains to combat the spread of rabies among and by raccoons.

Tennessee using helicopters and airplanes to vaccinate raccoons for rabies

Tennessee is taking to the skies for another year to vaccinate wild raccoons against rabies to prevent it from spreading to pets, livestock and humans.

The Tennessee Department of Health and USDA are planning several rabies vaccine "air drops" for another year in a row this October.

Here's how it works: Teams coat special vaccine packets with bait that are designed to trick unknowing raccoons into getting their rabies vaccine. Those packets are dropped from the skies into areas where raccoons are known to roam. When the raccoons eat the bait packets they will be vaccinated, and thankfully raccoons are not known to be particularly picky eaters. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.wbir.com/article/life/a...abies/51-386c2583-d283-41a8-a31a-b87a7322a55e

 

[EnolaGaia]

The highest number of US rabies deaths in over a decade has prompted the CDC to remind folks of the fatal disease's existence, characteristics, and absolutely necessary response if one is bitten.

Rise in rabies deaths in the US sparks CDC warning

Five people died of rabies in the U.S. in 2021, three of them within a five-week period in the fall, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This follows two years of zero rabies cases reported in the U.S. and is the highest number reported per year in over a decade, according to the CDC. The three cases, including one child, were all exposed to bats in or around their homes between Sept. 28 and Nov. 3, and none of them sought out post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), a series of vaccines vital for preventing rabies after exposure.

Rabies deaths in the U.S. are rare, with typically one to three cases reported annually. But the recent uptick prompted the CDC to raise awareness about the risks of the fatal disease. Since the number of rabid bats reported to the National Rabies Surveillance System has been about the same since 2007, the recent uptick might not be attributable to an increase in rabid bats but rather to a lack of awareness about the risks of rabies and the necessity of receiving PEP, according to a statement. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/rabies-deaths-cdc-report

 

[Frideswide]

FULL STORY: livescience.com/horned-viking-helmets-from-different-civilization

I think that's the wrong link!

 

[Sid]

I think that's the wrong link!

Nah, I think it's right . . .

 

[EnolaGaia]

I think that's the wrong link!

Thanks ... It's now been corrected.

 

[EnolaGaia]

An anteater transferred from one US zoo to another was unexpectedly found to be infected with rabies - a disease no one thought was a threat to its species. This in turn led to multiple people who'd been in contact with the anteater being inoculated against rabies.

Zoo anteater exposed people to rabies in first-of-its-kind case

An anteater infected with rabies at a Tennessee zoo potentially exposed more than a dozen people to the deadly virus, according to a new report.

The unusual case marks the first time that rabies has been reported in this species, a type of anteater from South America known as the southern tamandua or lesser anteater (Tamandua tetradactyla), according to the report, published Thursday (April 14) in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a journal from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

What's more, the anteater in question had recently been transferred from a zoo in Virginia and was infected with a variant of rabies not typically seen in Tennessee, meaning the animal likely caught the virus before its transfer, the report said. This case highlights the potential for "rabies translocation" from one geographic area to another through the movement of captive animals, the authors said. ...

The case began in early May 2021, when the anteater was transferred from the Virginia zoo to a zoo in Washington County, Tennessee, where it was housed with one other anteater. In late June 2021, the transferred anteater started showing signs of illness, including lethargy, loss of appetite and diarrhea, the report said. At first, veterinarians presumed the anteater had a bacterial infection and prescribed antibiotics. ...

When the animal's symptoms continued to get worse, veterinarians at a nearby college examined the animal. But at first, staff at the college did not consider rabies as a possible diagnosis because the animal wasn't known to have any bites (which can spread rabies) and rabies had never been reported in this type of anteater (tamanduas) before. ...

Ultimately, the anteater got so sick that it was euthanized on July 6, 2021, the report said. Veterinarians performed a necropsy to try to understand why the animal died, and samples of the anteater's brain tissue tested preliminary positive for rabies on Aug. 16, 2021. Additional testing was performed by the CDC, and the agency confirmed the diagnosis of rabies on Aug. 21, 2021. ...

Because anteaters don't have teeth, there was no risk of the animal biting people and giving them rabies. But some people may have been exposed to the animal's saliva or brain tissue (during the necropsy), which could have spread the virus ...

As of April 1, 2022, no additional cases of rabies related to this case — in either humans or animals — were identified in Tennessee or Virginia ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/zoo-anteater-rabies

FULL CDC CASE REPORT: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7115a1.htm?s_cid=mm7115a1_w

 

[ramonmercado]

An anteater transferred from one US zoo to another was unexpectedly found to be infected with rabies - a disease no one thought was a threat to its species. This in turn led to multiple people who'd been in contact with the anteater being inoculated against rabies.

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/zoo-anteater-rabies

FULL CDC CASE REPORT: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7115a1.htm?s_cid=mm7115a1_w

Could well be a case of aardvark did kill a man.

 

[maximus otter]

How one rabid kitten triggered intensive effort to contain deadly virus​

At first, Madeline Wahl thought her new kitten was having a bad reaction to medication for ringworm. After each dose, he would shake his head and flail his legs.

She and her husband, Rich, had brought the kitten to their house in a historic neighborhood in Omaha after a friend found the stray meowing in her driveway. About 5 weeks old and barely two pounds, the cuddly black-and-white animal looked like he was wearing a tuxedo. The Wahls named him Stanley.

But, within two days, Stanley stopped eating and developed seizures. Then he stopped breathing; Wahl’s husband resuscitated him with chest compressions.

Wahl rushed him to a veterinarian, who noted that the kitten’s pupils were different sizes. The vet listed nearly two dozen possible causes, including a common parasitic disease, for the animal’s abnormal behavior. Last on her list was rabies, which she assured Wahl was rare in domesticated animals. “We haven’t had rabies in forever,” Sharon Mix, the vet, said.

The tiny feline died the next day. Test results 48 hours later showed Stanley did, indeed, have rabies. Additional genetic sequencing showed something even more alarming: The kitten had a strain of raccoon rabies that had never been detected west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Douglas County health officials tracked down 10 people, including the Wahls, their friend and veterinary staffers who had been scratched or bitten by the kitten so that they could receive four doses of rabies vaccine and one dose of human rabies immune globulin to neutralize the virus, treatment that can cost up to $8,000 per person.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...ve-effort-to-contain-deadly-virus/ar-AA1kxBhi

maximus otter