In America, perhaps one to three people will die of the infection every year, and yet anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 people will receive post-exposure vaccination to avoid the dreadful possibility of fatal infection with rabies.
Today is the tenth anniversary of World Rabies Day, an opportunity for building awareness through education about this strange and intriguing virus. Every year, an estimated 55,000 people die from the infection, with children in Asia and Africa being most at risk. Dogs are the typical culprits - contrary to popular perception that it is often the fault of wild animals - and cause 95% of all human rabies deaths worldwide.
A captured rabid dog. Image: CDC.
Much of the difficulty in preventing lethal rabies infection lies with promptly identifying that a person has become exposed. This year, the CDC published a case report of the one instance of fatal human rabies in the ...
