I’ve been learning some about rabies and learned about rabies causing hydrophobia. This is just a theory, I’m not saying I know anything about this topic to be knowledgeable, but if we could get someone with rabies to not fear water, could they survive?

  • Kalkaline @leminal.spaceEnglish
    6·
    9 months ago

    The “cure” for rabies is to treat it with a vaccine prior to symptoms appearing. The rabbies vaccine is 100% effective and you will not become symptomatic if you treat soon after the bite. The Milwaukee protocol has been tried and it’s a last ditch effort for people who didn’t get the vaccine shortly after the bite and are now showing symptoms. They don’t even know if the Milwaukee Protocol is what prevented death or if the people it worked on were somehow resistant to rabies.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      Why can’t we just get a rabies vaccine when we’re kids, or every few years, like most other vaccines? Why does it have to be after the bite event?

      • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        9 months ago

        Vets and people who work in animal shelters often get the rabies vaccines beforehand. But even if you have been vaccinated previously, you still have to get it again if you are bitten.

      • Kalkaline @leminal.spaceEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        Because unless you’re living and working in a high risk environment, there’s no need for a human to go get a rabies vaccine because they can just avoid mammals that are acting strangely. It’s not like it’s airborne, you have to get a penetrating bite from a symptomatic animal to get it, so when that happens you just go to the doctor. You’d still likely get the vaccine even after a bite even if you had been previously vaccinated.

      • howrar@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        Considering that it has to go through the belly button, I’d rather not, thanks.

        This is apparently not the case anymore since the 1980s.