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From: sean@cadre.ARPA (Sean McLinden)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Viruses (esp. rabies)
Message-ID: <488@cadre.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 22:17:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: cadre.488
Posted: Fri Aug 16 22:17:59 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 06:34:29 EDT
References: <140@drutx.UUCP> <3444@utah-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: sean@cadre.ARPA (Sean McLinden)
Organization: Decision Systems Lab., University of Pittsburgh
Lines: 28

In article <3444@utah-cs.UUCP> brownc@utah-cs.UUCP (Eric C. Brown) writes:
>
>In article <140@drutx.UUCP> slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden) writes:
>>  Rabies is not curable.
>>
>
>Sorry, Sue, rabies is curable; I recall reading a report that a person with
>rabies had been cured about 5 years ago. As I recall, it requires VERY
>aggressive treatment, and the patient nearly died, but the patient eventually
>recovered.
>
>Unfortunately, I don't recall any details about the treatment.
>

Sorry Eric, but Sue was (for all intents and purposes), correct. There is
at least one case of a boy who survived rabies infection. As I have the
case description in my hand I might mention two things: 1) The treatment
was palliative, NOT curative, i.e., the symptoms were treated but no
effective anti-rabies virus medicines were used. 2) The clinical
presentation, while dramatic, was not the most severe ever noted. It is
probable that a number of factors including the plasticity of the
immature central newvous system and the subacute presentation of the
illness combined to allow survival in this case. In many other series
(totally nearly 900 cases of recognized rabies), no amount of palliative
care had any effect on the outcome of the disease.