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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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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