Just saw a video about rabies having 100% kill rate, peaked my interest.
Why is rabies such a horrible thing and what does it actually do to be able to kill you without an actual cure etc?
EDIT: I didn’t expect so many responses to this, thank you to everyone who answered!
In: 1482
Man this is a popular question. I’ll start by saying nobody knows for sure how exactly rabies kills you, but I’ll start with a tl;dr
tl;dr It takes a few weeks for your immune system to eliminate rabies but it only takes a few days to disrupt the brain enough to stop your heart and breathing.
The longer answer begins with the fact that that our brains are fragile and easily damaged. Rabies isn’t the only brain virus, there are many others, yet none of them have the near 100% mortality rate of rabies in humans (dogs and bats sometimes actually fight it off however). But viral infections of your brain are still very serious, and you can even die from chicken box once it gets into the brain. So to answer the question, you first need to understand why any virus is deadly in the brain.
1) Our brains are trapped unlike any other organ, inside a pressurized shell of bone, the skull. That means there is no room for any swelling. You can die just from a little bleeding in the brain because the pressure from the blood. When a virus attacks, the swelling can be enough to cause damage or change how the brain normally works, or it can be bad enough to cut off blood flow to parts of the brain.
2) The immune system is somewhat restricted in the brain because of #1 above. You don’t want any swelling. So it’s like building a really tall wall but with no soldiers inside. That’s a good defense unless someone sneaks in, then you’re dead. Rabies is unique in that instead of using the blood stream which is where the wall to the brain is, they sneak in through nerves channels. like a secret door into the castle.
3) All viruses do some damage in the beginning while your immune system ramps up. If it’s a sore throat , no big deal. the cells die and get replaced. But your brain is a very finely tuned instrument. And damage or even just change to the chemistry of the brain can lead to death. Your brain doesn’t have the ability to heal like other tissues. Damage may be permanent and cumulative. It takes a few weeks for your immune system to eliminate rabies but it only takes a few days to disrupt the brain enough to stop your heart and breathing. In other words you don’t have to kill brain cells to make them stop working.
final tl;dr human brains are easily damaged by any virus, and rabies is really good at getting into your brain.
Latest Answers