Expert in tropical diseases from the University of Dundee Professor Alan Fairlamb explains rabies: "Human rabies causes an estimated 40-70,000 deaths each year worldwide. The disease is caused by an RNA virus and is endemic in many countries, but not in the UK. The disease is mostly commonly acquired via the bite of an infected animal, usually a rabid dog. The virus multiplies at the site of the bite for a few days before spreading up the nerve fibres to infect the brain.
The early symptoms of the disease are non- specific and include a general feeling of being unwell, fever, anxiety, irritability and headache, often associated with pain, numbness and tingling at the site of the original wound. Later symptoms include extreme excitability and severe painful muscle spasms, particularly affecting the muscles involved in swallowing, from which the disease gets its name "hydrophobia".
Death usually occurs 5-10 days after the onset of symptoms, often preceded by paralysis. The incubation period varies, but is usually 3-8 weeks after being bitten. Treatment after exposure, but before symptoms has been developed, involving vaccination or administration of antiserum. There are no effective drugs to treat the disease and once infection is established in the brain the outcome is invariably fatal. The disease is not usually spread from patients."
By Jenny Marra, Press Officer 01382 344910 j.m.marra@dundee.ac.uk