By Brian Boone

And now for something on the more serious and scientific side: Some truths about a much feared and misunderstood disease that affects animals, and sometimes people: rabies.

Rabies is a virus, and it causes disease to take root in the central nervous system of the animals it infects. It’s transmitted, from animal to animal (or animal to human) via a scratch or bite that breaks the skin, and after rabies-infested saliva gets in. 

The word rabid, meaning frenzied, inconsolable, and unreasonable, comes from rabies, because that’s how animals showing symptoms of the disease behave. 

Symptoms of rabies in wild and domesticated animals: aggression, extreme fear, seizures, an inability to move, a lack of coordination, and, most famously and intimidating: foaming at the mouth. 

The threat of rabies transmission goes up in the fall. As temperatures begin to drop, animals that are more likely to carry the disease search for warmer, indoor places, like garages, attics, outbuildings, and barns. That’s where they’re more likely to encounter humans and domesticated animals and literally lash out or bite if they feel threatened.

Raccoons are the wild animals most associated with rabies, but the other land-dwelling creatures that live in and around human-settled areas most likely to carry it are skunks and foxes. All of those animals show off signs of infection.

Rabies is especially common in bat populations, and 35% percent of all rabies is found in the flying rodent-like mammals. And while bats generally leave humans alone, they should be feared as far as rabies is concerned: Bats infected with the virus are asymptomatic, meaning they don’t show any hints until they scratch or bite.

The most rabid animal varies by location. Bats with rabies have been found in every state except one: Hawaii. In the eastern U.S., racoons are the major carrier, while in the Midwest, it’s skunks. 

Rabies is most common in wild animals. 90% of all cases involve undomesticated animals, but they strike out at humans a lot. About 1.5 million Americans seek treatment each year for possible rabies exposure.

About 10 people worldwide die from rabies every year. Half a century ago, that number was closer to 500, but new developments in effective treatments, vaccinating pets, and public health agencies sharing data and tracking cases, made the figure plummet. 

The first rabies vaccine was invented by a milk man. Rabies has been identified and written about for centuries, but the first anti-rabies vaccine was developed in 1884 Louis Pasteur, the French bacteriologist whose research and methods led to making cow’s milk safer to drink. At the time, rabies was at epidemic levels in France, and the only known (and ineffective) treatment was to place hot irons on the spot of the bite. Pasteur took the saliva of a rabid dog, injected it into a rabbit, and after it died, dried the animal’s central nervous system — its spinal cord — to weaken the concentration of the virus over time. Theorizing that injecting just a little into a healthy person would trigger the immune system to fight off the disease and build defenses, he inoculated a child who’d been bitten by a dog. That little boy never did develop rabies.