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From Fear to Future: The Rabies Virus
Muruganandam, Ganesh Balaji, Samhitha Vassil, Markella Patel, Yashvi Ahater, Aleena
Muruganandam, Ganesh
Balaji, Samhitha
Vassil, Markella
Patel, Yashvi
Ahater, Aleena
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Journal article
Date
2024-05-17
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Psychology and Neuroscience
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https://doi.org/10.34944/xae8-pr84
Abstract
In a hospital room in India, a boy of about nine years old lays in bed, thrashing his arms and legs in the air. His head sways from side to side as his mouth froths with saliva. The nurses call out his name from a distance, telling him to stop, but he does not respond; he continues behaving aggressively, gasping for air in between the motions of his swinging head as he struggles to breathe. The boy’s symptoms had only begun a few weeks prior after a stray dog had bitten his leg and infected him. However, at this stage of his disease, the boy’s condition was almost certain to result in death.
The child’s abnormal behavior may seem like a scene from a zombie movie, but his condition is the result of a real disease: rabies. Rabies is caused by a virus known as the Rabies lyssavirus, which attacks the nervous system to produce a range of worsening physical and psychological symptoms [1]. It is one of the deadliest viruses to exist, nearing an almost 100% fatality rate in humans [1]. Rabies is zoonotic, meaning it can spread between different animal species, and it is generally transmitted through the saliva from animal bites from mammals such as dogs, cats, foxes, bats, and raccoons [2]. More than 99% of rabies infections in humans worldwide are from dog bites, but in the United States and other Western countries, public health campaigns have mostly controlled the disease through the mass vaccination and increased surveillance for rabies among dogs and other animals, both domesticated and wild [1,2]. However, rabies remains a neglected disease in many developing countries, and it is estimated to cause 60,000 deaths per year worldwide [2].
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Muruganandam, G., Balaji, S., Vassil, M., Patel, Y., Ahater, A., & Zeid, D. (2024). From Fear to Future: The Rabies Virus. Grey Matters, 7, 42-46.
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Available at: https://greymatterstu.squarespace.com/fcspring24/from-fear-to-future-the-rabies-virus
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Grey Matters, Iss. 7, Spring 2024
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