A rabies exposure incident in New Jersey provides another example of some common good and bad points that come up in these situations.
Fifteen people from four families, along with a veterinarian, are receiving post-exposure treatment after contact with a rabid kitten. In the all-too-familiar scenario, a kitten was found in a cat colony outside
It’s that time of year again… time for the US annual rabies surveillance report in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (Dyer et al 2013).
Some highlights:
I’ve had the occasional debate with people about the public health risks of rabies in horses.
On one hand…
On the other hand…
Alberta Health Services Medical Officer Dr. David Strong has urged the public to take precautions after a Calgary-area puppy was diagnosed with rabies. The five-month-old puppy came from Nunavut and had not been vaccinated against rabies. All those with whom the puppy had contact have been assessed and it doesn’t sound like anyone required
The word "ironic” gets used a lot, often incorrectly.
Alanis Morrissette’s hit song “Ironic” is a great example of this since she (ironically?) describes situations that aren’t really ironic, they just suck (i.e. winning the lottery and dying the next day isn’t ironic, it’s just bad luck).
Anyway, irony doesn’t have much to do with
ProMed-mail usually posts a monthly recap of rabies cases in the US. The most recent one (like most of them) doesn’t have anything too astounding, but it provides some good reminders.
Skunk attacks baby
A five-month-old baby that was outside in a car seat was bitten in the face several times by a skunk. The
As if horse owners and veterinarians in Queensland need another infectious disease challenge…..
Recently, a horse in southwest Queensland was diagnosed with Australian bat lyssavirus infection. This virus, which is similar to rabies, is present in some bats in Australia. It can be transmitted to people from bats, causing fatal disease, but human
Business Mirror, a Philippine news website, had a recent article entitled "Rabies: deadlier than ever". That’s a bit like saying Decapitation: now an even worse idea. Rabies isn’t ‘deadlier than ever,’ since it’s hard to get deadlier when the disease is already almost invariably fatal.
Anyway, beyond quibbling about the title, there
ProMed Mail‘s monthly US rabies update often contains some interesting cases, and the last one is no exception.
A llama in Georgia became aggressive, started biting itself and was spitting at one of its caretakers. A spitting llama certainly doesn’t mean rabies (I have dodged enough llama spitballs to know that) but any sudden
Public health personnel in Chapin, Connecticut (USA) are trying to find a woman bitten by a rabid cat. The woman was driving down South Brear Hill Road when she came across a cat. She picked the cat up from the road and told someone else who was there that the cat bit her. She then
