1 - The History of Rabies

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of history of rabies. For centuries, humans have felt terror after getting bitten by rabid dogs. But one has to take a mighty leap into the past to realize that until the 19th century, there was no accurate diagnosis of the disease in humans or animals, no isolation of the infectious agent, no animal control, and no human treatment. The role of wild animals in transmitting rabies was recognized by Celsus. Many of the histories of violent outbreaks in wild animals and the resultant human cases involved wolves. Canine rabies in most industrialized countries is reduced to almost nil, although the number of reported wildlife rabies cases has increased. The control of wildlife rabies is another matter, with no possibility of vaccinating the hundreds of thousands of animals needed to reduce the disease by needle and syringe. The oral vaccination method has resulted in the elimination of rabies in many Western European countries and eastern Canada, through the use of a variety of attenuated and recombinant rabies vaccines, and is also being used in raccoons and coyotes. Human rabies cases in the developing world are almost always transmitted by rabid dogs, but the situation in the developed world has changed radically.