I am thinking about the two grizzly bears at our local zoo that had to be killed in the 90’s because one of them scratched a child who jumped into their caged area. They could then confirm that neither animal had rabies.
Why is there not a more novel way to test for rabies? And why can’t the human be tested for it?
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Because the only reliable way to test for rabies is with brain tissue, there really are no live animal tests for rabies, they’re not conclusive enough. That’s why the CDC and other federal agencies recommends that the head of a potentially rabid animal be sent to a state lab for testing, especially if a human is bitten by it.
The preventative post exposure shots are apparently *very* unpleasant to get.
Once you start showing symptoms of rabies, you are dead, there is no cure or effective treatment.
Because the only reliable way to test for rabies is with brain tissue, there really are no live animal tests for rabies, they’re not conclusive enough. That’s why the CDC and other federal agencies recommends that the head of a potentially rabid animal be sent to a state lab for testing, especially if a human is bitten by it.
The preventative post exposure shots are apparently *very* unpleasant to get.
Once you start showing symptoms of rabies, you are dead, there is no cure or effective treatment.
Others have had good answers about why rabies is hard to test for and why the test is important enough to be worth killing an animal to run it.
I’ll just add that as a matter of biology, we almost certainly could invent a better test for rabies. But doing so would require a bit of research and a lot of development. We would need biologists, medical doctors, chemists, and lab specialists to build a test, make it cheap, and then do a lot of testing to make sure it’s as accurate as the old test.
This process would cost a lot of money and sadly there isn’t a lot of money dedicated to rabies. It kills about 60,000 people per year but only about 3 Americans. The number in Europe is also very small. Most of the worlds medical research is done in the USA and Europe and 90% of global medical profits are made there. Therefore diseases that don’t affect Americans and Europeans don’t get a lot of attention.
Others have had good answers about why rabies is hard to test for and why the test is important enough to be worth killing an animal to run it.
I’ll just add that as a matter of biology, we almost certainly could invent a better test for rabies. But doing so would require a bit of research and a lot of development. We would need biologists, medical doctors, chemists, and lab specialists to build a test, make it cheap, and then do a lot of testing to make sure it’s as accurate as the old test.
This process would cost a lot of money and sadly there isn’t a lot of money dedicated to rabies. It kills about 60,000 people per year but only about 3 Americans. The number in Europe is also very small. Most of the worlds medical research is done in the USA and Europe and 90% of global medical profits are made there. Therefore diseases that don’t affect Americans and Europeans don’t get a lot of attention.
As someone who recently went through a rabies experience, it isn’t bad. Even for someone with a needle phobia. Barely felt any of the shots other than one. I gave her a pass because I apparently have a thing for extremely attractive nurses!
Cost on the other hand… it would have been around $17000 without insurance!!! Even with good insurance, it was $1600 out of pocket total. 1 ER visit plus 4 clinics. (Only an ER will administer the initial HRIG injection) Absolutely zero side affects, zero injection site pain.
As someone who recently went through a rabies experience, it isn’t bad. Even for someone with a needle phobia. Barely felt any of the shots other than one. I gave her a pass because I apparently have a thing for extremely attractive nurses!
Cost on the other hand… it would have been around $17000 without insurance!!! Even with good insurance, it was $1600 out of pocket total. 1 ER visit plus 4 clinics. (Only an ER will administer the initial HRIG injection) Absolutely zero side affects, zero injection site pain.
This all makes me understand better why Great Britain had a six month quarantine even on house pets since there is zero presence of rabies in Great Britain. There is now a workaround for a chipped animal and testing them before traveling but for a long time it was six months.
This all makes me understand better why Great Britain had a six month quarantine even on house pets since there is zero presence of rabies in Great Britain. There is now a workaround for a chipped animal and testing them before traveling but for a long time it was six months.
Rabies doesn’t raise a lot of antibodies, so blood and saliva tests are not conclusive; even CSF tests aren’t perfectly reliable. The most reliable and “gold standard” test requires sampling tissue from various regions of the animal’s brain. That process isn’t compatible with life, so the animal is euthanized in a humane manner.
The reason they test for the infection is because rabies is fatal if not treated prior to the onset of symptoms, and you don’t want to give the vaccine unnecessarily because not much is made and the treatment in humans consists of an expensive ($3,000 up to $10,000 in US) course of 3-4 inoculations, which are often painful and have strong side effects (short term).
Rabies doesn’t raise a lot of antibodies, so blood and saliva tests are not conclusive; even CSF tests aren’t perfectly reliable. The most reliable and “gold standard” test requires sampling tissue from various regions of the animal’s brain. That process isn’t compatible with life, so the animal is euthanized in a humane manner.
The reason they test for the infection is because rabies is fatal if not treated prior to the onset of symptoms, and you don’t want to give the vaccine unnecessarily because not much is made and the treatment in humans consists of an expensive ($3,000 up to $10,000 in US) course of 3-4 inoculations, which are often painful and have strong side effects (short term).
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