Why can somebody with rabies not recover ?

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If somebody has rabies it almost always means inevitably death because the person won’t be able to drink water anymore(i guess the “not able to drink water in not the only reason but one of the main reasons)
Why is it not possible to put somebody in a coma and feed him trough tubes until he recovers ?

In: Biology

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

>If somebody has rabies it almost always means inevitably death because the person won’t be able to drink water anymore(i guess the “not able to drink water in not the only reason but one of the main reasons)

Dehydration has been the historically most notable and immediate cause of death. It’s not as if early doctors would notice the damage to the brain. The fear of water was the predominant symptom that seemed like the most probable cause of death. Even if you manage to hydrate the patient, what the virus does to the brain will still kill them.

>Why is it not possible to put somebody in a coma and feed him trough tubes until he recovers ?

[This has been done](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLoEI9jNBvk), but only once. The idea behind putting the patient into a coma is that the increase brain activity the virus causes wreaks havoc on the brain, so reducing brain activity would limit the damage it could cause. It has been tried multiple times since then, yet only worked that one time. “Why did it work this one time and not others?” is the million dollar question.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It causes your brain cells to overstimulate to the point that they stop functioning. It basically shorts out your brain.

Hydrophobia and increased aggression are just mechanisms to help it spread.

IIRC there is only one confirmed case of anyone surviving, and she suffered permanent brain damage and spent some time in a medically induced coma.

Anonymous 0 Comments

rabies is a virus. problem is it doesn’t tend to show any symptoms until the virus has already reached your brain (encephalitis) and by this point it’s too late to save you. so it’s not the lack of water but the viral brain infection that kills you. if you are treated before the virus spreads to your brain you will usually be ok. that’s why it’s important to get treated asap if you believe you’ve been bitten by a rabid animal