Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published Jan. 12, 2005

Rabies makes its presence known again

Seldom do we hear the word hydrophobia these days. In my childhood that was the preferred word for rabies. This ancient disease transmitted by a virus attacked the central nervous system. Those very early people gave it the descriptive name hydrophobia which means fear of water because in the late stages swallowing becomes very difficult and even the sight of water brings fear to the patient.

They were also responsible for associating it with the period of summer when the dog star Sirius appeared in the heavens and that time became known as "dog days." It was during that time of year that dogs were most often struck by the dreaded disease.

In 1881 Louis Pasteur became interested in the disease and after much experimenting he made a vaccine which resisted the onset of rabies once a person had been infected by a bite. The vaccine had to be injected daily for 7 to 14 days.

Rabies has been in the headlines recently because a 15-year-old Wisconsin girl is on the road to recovery from the disease. She is only the sixth person in the world known to have survived after the onset of symptoms.

Her ordeal began in September when she was bitten by a bat while in church. She did not seek treatment and in October rabies symptoms appeared. Two days later she was hospitalized but her case seemed terminal. Her doctor suggested to her parents he could try an experimental treatment and they did not hesitate in giving him permission.

Nearly eleven weeks later she was able to go home and is continuing physical and occupational therapy to regain strength and coordination. Her case differs from the other five patients who survived because they had been vaccinated or received the series of rabies vaccine before they showed symptoms. She had received no treatment. Studies are under way to determine if the procedures used by the doctor should be continued in future cases.

In the United States only a few cases of human rabies are seen each year but across the world someone dies of rabies every fifteen minutes on average. I was a student nurse when one of those few cases of human rabies was admitted to our hospital in the 1940s. Word spread rapidly throughout the hospital that a patient in isolation had strange symptoms. His convulsions could only be controlled by two large male attendants holding him down. He died a violent death in a short time.

Until an autopsy confirmed the cause of death no one spoke aloud the word rabies. Once there was no doubt the hospital urged anyone who felt they needed protection to take the vaccine. I felt no concern because I had worked on another floor. There were no new cases.

Word had spread that the pathologist who had done the autopsy had received a cut on his gloved hand as he examined the brain. One evening I was assigned to work on an autopsy being done by this doctor. Some bold person in the room that night asked him about that frightening mistake. He answered, "I keep a loaded pistol in my desk and I know the symptoms."

Many years later a child with all the symptoms of rabies was admitted to that same hospital in Lima, OH and he made headlines when he became one of the six patients who survived.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.