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Show Your Doctor Says... The following is one of a series of articles written by members of the Utah State Medical Association and published in cooperation with your local newspaper. These articles are scheduled to appear every other week throughout the year in an effort to better acquaint you with probelms of health, and designed to improve the well-being of the people of Utah. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT RABIES! There are some diseases whose very names produce a feeling of dread in the hearer. Rabies is one of these, along with leprosy and bubonic plague, the "Black Death of the Middle Ages." Although few people have seen a case of rabies, we are mentally acquainted with the picture of a mad dog, saliva drooling from its mouth, eyes staring wildly, snapping snap-ping savagely at all that it meets in its path. Just what is rabies and how true is this mental picture ? Rabies is a virus disease, produced pro-duced by tiny bodies that are too small to be seen with the ordinary microscope. The virus is found in the saliva, so that a bite wound is necessary for its transmission. It is necessary for the virus to be passed from animal to animal, for it expires outside of a living body. In some of the lower animals, it apparently assumes a latent stage, not producing active symptoms of the disease. The animals, such as fox, porcupine, skunks, coyotes and wolves, serve as a dangerous reservoir from which, the disease can be spread to other animals and man. Man may acquire the disease dis-ease directly from animals of this type, but is more often infected by a dog which in turn has been bitten by one of the carriers of this disease. Pasteur, the Father of Bacteriology, Bacter-iology, very early in his career turned his attention to this dread disease. While not knowing all the facts about it, he was able to devise a method of preventive treatment which is still the method used today. He inoculated rabbits with this virus, and when they developed symptoms of the disease, they were killed and their spinal cords were removed. These cords were dried or dehydrated for periods per-iods of from one to twenty-one days. This weakened or attenuated the virus. The cords were then ground into solution, and a victim bitten by a rabid animal was given daily inoculations of this material, starting with the weakest or that which had been dried for twenty-one twenty-one days, working back to the shortest interval. This i still known as the Pasteur treatment for rabies and it still requires a period of approximately three weeks to protect the victim by giving his body an opportunity to produce a defense against the disease. This method is practical, for the disease has a long incubation period. per-iod. It may take 50 to 60 days for it to develop after one is exposed. ex-posed. It is thought that this long time interval is due to the fact that the virus travels along the nerves and that it takes this long to reach the spinal cord and brain, but it may be due merely to the fact that it takes the virus this period of 60 days to multiply sufficiently suf-ficiently to produce the disease. When the disease develops, it causes stimulation of the brain, producing great excitability. In addition, the muscles, most often the jaw muscles, go into spasm, contracting tightly. This is followed fol-lowed by generalized muscular weakness and death. These effects give rise to our usual picture of a rabid animal. The mental stimulation causes it to be irritable, running wildly and biting viciously. The spasm of the jaw muscle causes the characteristic drooling due to inability to swallow. This has also given the disease another name, "Hydrophobia", which means "to fear water." An animal or man with this disease does not fear water, but he is unable to drink because of the jaw spasm. In about twenty percent of the cases, paralysis is the first and major symptom. Although the disease is not common com-mon in man, there is a constant danger, for the animal reservoir is always present. As far as is known, once the symptoms appear in man, it is fatal. There are three methods to control con-trol this dangerous enemy. First, dogs should be vaccinated against the disease. Second, the animal reservoirs in the lower animals should be destroyed if discovered. Third, proper care should be taken if a person is bitten by an animal that is thought to be rabid. The initial impulse it to destroy the animal, but this ends any opportunity oppor-tunity to make a correct diagnosis. The animal should be captured if possible, penned and observed for any development of the disease. If it appears, then treatment can be started in safe time. If the animal remains free of symptoms, there is no danger. A diaosis can be made from a study of the animal brain, but this is difficult and often inaccurate. If such a study is necessary, neces-sary, the animal head should be refrigerated until it can be taken to the nearest public health laboratory la-boratory for proper study. |