Download Kratz Rabies

Rabies
William T. Kratz
Rabies
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The Rabies virus infects the central nervous system, causing brain disease and eventually death
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The Rabies virus belongs to the genus Lyssavirus and the family Rhabdoviridae
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Rabies is a negative stranded RNA virus which is distributed across most continents
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The first accounts of Rabies are described by Babylonians from the 23 rd century B.C.
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Greek word for Rabies is “lyssa” which translates to “violent”
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In 19th century Europe rabies was a rampant disease, those infected would kill themselves or be killed
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In 1885, Louis Pasteur introduced the first successful post-exposure treatment
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An estimated 40,000 + people die worldwide from rabies each year
Infection and Replication
All mammals are at risk of getting
rabies!
The most common transmission of the
disease is through a bite from an animal
that has infectious saliva.
Although uncommon other modes of
transmission have been documented:
• contamination of mucous membranes
• aerosol transmission
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corneal and organ transplantations.
Infection and Replication
Host Animals
Although all mammals are susceptible to
the Rabies virus, a certain few can be
more efficient reservoir hosts for the
disease
In 2001, 93% of all documented cases of
Rabies came from wild animals:
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Raccoons
Skunks
Bats
Foxes
Coyotes
37.2%
30.7%
17.2%
5.9%
0.7%
Sources
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http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/
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http://www.fas.org/ahead/docs/rabies.htm
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http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Lyssavirus
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http://rabies.emedtv.com/rabies/animals-with-rabies.html