What is the deadliest virus on earth? How do people turn into zombies? How did scientists fight it raining forests with chicken heads? The answers are in this interesting report.
The purpose of this report is not to frighten, but rather to learn about this disease and beware of it. In preparing it, we returned to several sources, including a video from the "Kurzgesagt" YouTube channel, the World Health Organization, the Arab Scientific Society, and the Atlantic magazine.
The dog is the deadliest virus on earth
According to the video published on the "Kurz Gessagt" channel (in short), the rabies virus is the deadliest virus on earth, and it turns humans into water-afraid zombies, and animals into angry monsters.
To clarify, we are not talking here about zombies in the sense of movies, but rather about the neurological changes that occur to the injured, which usually when symptoms begin, the probability of death is almost 100%. This analogy is to clarify the seriousness of the disease and does not mean any underestimation or simplification of the injury or the suffering of the injured, tens of thousands of whom die annually from the disease.
According to the World Health Organization , rabies is a vaccine-preventable viral disease that occurs in more than 150 countries and territories. Dogs are the primary source of human rabies infection and cause death, contributing to up to 99% of all human rabies transmissions. The transmission of infection can be stopped by vaccinating dogs and preventing them from being bitten.
The infection causes tens of thousands of deaths annually, mostly in Asia and Africa. The cost of rabies globally is estimated at $8.6 billion annually. Children under the age of 15 represent 40% of people bitten by animals suspected of having rabies.
Each year, more than 29 million people in the world receive the vaccination after exposure to animal bites. This prevents annually - according to estimates - hundreds of thousands of deaths from rabies.
Rabies incubation period
The incubation period for rabies usually extends from two to three months, but may range from a week to a year, depending on factors such as where the virus enters the body and viral load, according to the World Health Organization.
Symptoms of rabies
Initial symptoms of rabies include:
Pain accompanied by fever.
Unusual or unexplained tingling, stinging, or burning pain (paresthesia) at the site of the wound.
As the virus spreads to the central nervous system, progressive and fatal inflammation occurs in the brain and spinal cord, according to the WHO.
The attack of the rabies virus on the nervous system leads to the changes that we have described as making the infected person like a zombie.
Forms of rabies
irritable rabies
This shape leads to:
Hyperactivity.
arousal;
Hydrophobia (fear of water).
Aerophobia (fear of air currents or the outdoors) sometimes.
Death occurs a few days later as a result of cardiac and respiratory arrest.
Paralytic rabies
This figure represents about 20% of all human cases. It does not develop as suddenly as a furious form, and usually takes a longer course. And in it:
The muscles gradually become paralyzed, starting at the site of the bite or scratch.
The person slowly falls into a coma and eventually dies.
The paralytic form of rabies is often misdiagnosed, which contributes to underreporting of the disease, according to the WHO.
Rabies infection transmission
People usually become infected after being bitten or scratched by infected dogs or animals, and human infections transmitted from infected dogs account for 99% of cases.
In the Americas, bats are now the leading cause of human rabies mortality, with this region interrupting most of the transmission of canine-borne infection. Rabies in bats is also an emerging public health threat in Australia and Western Europe. Rarely have human deaths reported from exposure to foxes, raccoons, skunks, jackals, mongooses and other wild carnivores, and biting by rodents is not known as a cause of rabies transmission, according to the WHO.
The infection can also be transmitted when the saliva of infected animals comes into direct contact with the mucous membranes of humans or fresh skin wounds. It was mentioned before that transmission of rabies by inhalation of droplets containing the virus or transplantation of contaminated organs, but it occurs only rarely.
Is rabies transmitted between humans?
The World Health Organization says, "The transmission of infection between humans by biting is theoretically possible, but has never been confirmed. This also applies to transmission to humans through consumption of raw meat or milk of infected animals."
Post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies virus
Post-exposure prophylaxis is the immediate treatment of a person after being bitten by rabies. This treatment prevents the virus from entering the central nervous system, which leads to imminent death.
Post-exposure prophylaxis is the following:
-Thorough washing and topical treatment of a wound caused by a bite or scratch as soon as possible after a suspected exposure.
-Undergo a course of effective and effective rabies vaccine, which meets the standards of the World Health Organization.
-Get anti-rabies immunoglobulin if recommended.
-Starting treatment immediately after exposure to the rabies virus can effectively prevent symptoms and death.
-How do you wash a wound after being bitten by an animal suspected of carrying rabies?
-This first aid measure involves rinsing and washing the wound thoroughly for at least 15 minutes with soap and water, detergent, povidone-iodine, or other substances that remove and kill the rabies virus.
Post-exposure vaccine
Professor Abdel Raouf Ali Al-Manama, from the Islamic University of Gaza, says in an article on the Arab Scientific Society Organization website , that vaccinations are usually taken as a preventive measure before exposure to the pathogenic microbe. However, there are a few cases in which the vaccine can be given to humans after exposure, including exposure to the rabies virus.
Mammals
He adds that rabies or rabies is a viral disease transmitted by mammals, such as monkeys, foxes, cats, bats, and others; But dogs are the most common, and it is transmitted between animals.
The organism that causes rabies
The name of the rabies virus is Rabies lyssavirus, and it belongs to the order of Mononegavirales, which are viruses with undivided, negative RNA genomes. Within this group, viruses are classified with the "bullet" shape characteristic of the Rhabdoviridae family, to which the rabies virus belongs.
Rabies virus installation
The virus that causes rabies is approximately 180 nanometers long and 75 nanometers wide. The rabies genome encodes 5 proteins: nucleoprotein (N), phosphoprotein (P), protein (M), glycoprotein (G) and polymerase (L).
How does the rabies virus move in the body?
-The rabies virus is transmitted to the wound through the bite of another animal.
-The virus begins its movement from the site of the bite to the brain by moving inside the nerves, during which time the animal or infected person does not appear ill. The time between the bite and the onset of symptoms is called the incubation period, and it can last from weeks to months.
-The rabies virus reaches through the nerves to the spinal cord and brain, and when the virus reaches the brain, it multiplies rapidly and travels to the salivary glands.
-The patient begins to show signs of illness, and usually the appearance of symptoms means that the patient will die.
How did scientists fight the dog with chicken heads?
In March 1967, an epidemic of rabies transmitted by red foxes reached Switzerland. The epidemic was a big problem, so, something had to be done about the foxes. But the usual methods of poisoning, confinement and shooting did not work. The alternative was to vaccinate them, according to a report in The Atlantic.
On October 17, 1978, veterinarian Franz Steck conducted an experiment, spreading the dog vaccine in a real field experiment, by spreading more than 4,050 chicken heads containing the vaccine along the eastern shore of Lake Geneva.
The heads also contained a chemical mark - tetracycline - that could later be found in the teeth and bones of foxes shot by hunters. When it became clear that the foxes were already eating the bait, the initiative gained more attention, money, and effort. The team spread more dog-vaccinated chicken heads, mostly by dumping them on roadsides and driveways. For more remote areas, they used helicopters. From 1979 to 1984, chicken heads were dropping off in the countryside.
The program was successful. Over the course of 4 years, the team spread about 52,000 baits, and wherever the chicken heads fell, the rabies disappeared.
In 1983, Germany began its own vaccination effort. By the mid-1990s, 16 European countries participated. New and more effective vaccines have been developed. Airplanes are becoming more common.
Later, tablets of fish or fats produced in large quantities were used instead of chicken heads.
This succeeded in reducing the counter of rabid foxes by 90% within a decade. Switzerland, the country where this strategy began, saw an increase in foxhound cases in the 1990s due to an increasing number of foxes, but they were able to beat it by doubling the density of baits and specifically targeting foxhounds to vaccinate newborn cubs. By 1996, it was rabies-free. By that time, Switzerland had published 2.8 million grafts in the country, and Europe as a whole had published about 74 million grafts.
Quick Tips for Dealing with the Risk of Rabies
You must go to the emergency immediately after being bitten - or licked by the animal for the mouth, eye, or wound - and there the doctor will immediately begin to give the victim a dog vaccine, which usually lasts up to two weeks, which is the only way to save the injured from death.
It is also necessary to go to the emergency department in the event that a person suspects that he has been bitten without knowing, or a family member has been bitten or licked, or a person who is incapable of expression such as infants, handicapped, elderly or mentally ill persons has been bitten, licked or infected. They can explain what happened to them or complain, so they may catch the dog without knowing or crossing anyone, which leads to their death. Therefore, they must be carefully monitored, followed up and taken to the emergency room when there is any doubt that they have been exposed to the deadly virus.
Rabies prevention
Protect your home from bats, close windows, and repair small cracks.
Pay attention to people who are unable to express themselves, such as infants and the elderly who are helpless and handicapped.
Protect your family members, including adults and children who can communicate and express, and infants, the helpless and the disabled who cannot express what is wrong with them.
If you suspect any family member has been bitten, licked, or infected, take them directly to the emergency clinic.
If you wake up in the morning and find a bat in the room, consider that it has bitten you and go straight to the emergency clinic, and this applies to all family members even if they do not complain or say they were bitten. Do not be complacent, the disease is fatal.
Stay away from wild animals and stray dogs, as stray dogs infected with a dog are usually very aggressive and attack humans, or friendly and approach them, and in both cases they approach humans, and it is believed that this is one of the mechanisms by which the virus changes the behavior of its victim to enhance its chances of transmission to other victims, As stray dogs and wild animals are usually afraid of people and stay away from them.
If you have a pet at home, you must follow specific instructions to protect it and protect you, by giving it the dog vaccine and keeping it indoors in a closed place so that it is not bitten by other animals.
If you will be traveling to areas where there is a high risk of rabies, consult your doctor about your rabies vaccination before travelling.
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