Rabies
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Rabies is a virus. Like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, once symptoms of the virus appear the disease is fatal. Unlike HIV, the rabies virus can be transmitted through contact with saliva of an infected human or animal. HIV cannot live outside the body, but the rabies virus has been documented as being transmitted from air, drinking cups, toothbrushes, food, cigarettes and other modes. However, there is a pre-exposure and post-exposure vaccine available for rabies, originally developed by Louis Pasteur. Yet, with rabies vaccinations the key word is TIME. Time is critical in rabies cases because of the nature of the virus. Once symptoms appear, approximately a month after infection, the disease is fatal. What is difficult to control about rabies vaccination is the pathway of the virus once it enters the body. In cases of HIV, the blood has produced antibodies which are detectable long before symptoms develop. The case is not the same with rabies, an acute, contagious infection of the central nervous system because it does not travel in the bloodstream, “Since the virus moves through the body inside nerve tissue rather than the blood, the disease triggers no antibodies and can’t be detected during its incubation. Once it reaches the brain, death is virtually inevitable” (Linden 58). This analysis will discuss the effects of rabies on behavior, animal versus human rabies, symptoms of rabi
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has a tendency to bite, both in fighting and in sexual activities [as Mike Tyson and Marv Albert prove respectively]. The intensification of such tendency by rabies increases the risk of transmission, as the virus is in saliva and other body secretions.
(Quinn D8)
RABIES HISTORY
The above symptoms and conditions of a person with rabies have made many speculate that when the disease was not understood those afflicted with it were responsible for originating the vampire legends. Rabies is written about in medical documents as far back as 300 BC, though some maintain it was “first described 3,800 years ago in Mesopotamia” (Linden 58). However it wasn’t until the early nineteenth century that the mode of transmission was discovered. In the late 19th century, Louis Pasteur developed a vaccine to prevent rabies transmission but it was a very painful ordeal for the individual, “The rabies vaccine used to be an extremely painful series of 14 to 21 shots in the abdomen. In recent years a much gentler but equally effective set of five shots in the arm have become available. The vaccination often costs more than $1,000, but that is a small price for stopping the virus” (Linden 58). The virus is so old and resilient that many
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Approximate Word count = 2156
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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