On a positive note, the act of being alive is also a ticking time bomb that inevitably leads to death as well, so there is that!
>> Only x number of people have died in the U.S. in the past x years. Rabies is really rare.
> Yes, deaths from rabies are rare in the United States, in the neighborhood of 2-3 per year. This does not mean rabies is rare. The reason that mortality is so rare in the U.S. is due to a very aggressive treatment protocol of all bite cases in the United States: If you are bitten, and you cannot identify the animal that bit you, or the animal were to die shortly after biting you, you will get post exposure treatment. That is the protocol.
> Post exposure is very effective (almost 100%) if done before you become symptomatic. It involves a series of immunoglobulin shots - many of which are at the site of the bite - as well as the vaccine given over the span of a month. (Fun fact - if you're vaccinated for rabies, you may be able to be an immunoglobulin donor!)
> In countries without good treatment protocols rabies is rampant. India alone sees 20,000 deaths from rabies PER YEAR.
They didn’t catch it so we didn’t know if the bat had rabies. We hadn’t been bitten, but you can get the virus dropped in your eyes or nose and it is basically 100% fatal.
With those odds, you go through the 3 shot protocol. It was basically $1k per shot for each of us. We have solid insurance but they were not covered because they are so rare.
(I know US medical insurance is different)
If you truly must live your life in fear of dying, look no further than heart disease and car accidents.
Those are not as scary because there are plenty of survivors, in various states of health. Rabies is notable for being a very binary and decisive disease with little advance warning or treatment.
It is sadly funny that we manage to extinct the useful, and mostly beneficial creatures around us, but our "enemies" just exist rampantly and laugh.
I also got the 4-shot vaccine series, which felt like any other vaccine (basically painless), but the RIG was like having liquid fire injected into my Forrest Gump region.
Mostly, I remember it being funny every time I went back and presented my bare butt to the nurse.
Most vets I know have only ever had one or two doses per decade.
Might it not be better to reduce rabies in wildlife, or spend the money on other kinds of vaccinations?
I guess there is a lot to account for when you start talking about preventative vaccination instead of post exposure vaccination.
I was curious, and thought that would be something gruesome involving power tools, so I looked it up and it's apparently an induced coma with heavy doses of antiviral drugs, which has a very low success rate.
The shakes from that cannibals get are prions. I also though I saw a link to a subset of alzehimer cases but can't find it.
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/06/researchers-make-surp...
"...in 1985 when the Colorado Division of Wildlife tried to eliminate CWD from a research facility by treating the soil with chlorine, removing the treated soil, and applying an additional chlorine treatment before letting the facility remain vacant for more than a year, they were unsuccessful in eliminating CWD from the facility."
There seems to be some kind of species barrier making it difficult for deer prions to infect humans, because people are certainly being exposed to it frequently, especially in areas like the midwest where CWD is rampant. But we're in deep trouble if that ever changes. Imagine people dying of CJD because deer peed in a field somewhere decades ago, the prions bound to the soil, then bound to a seed planted in the soil, then you ate whatever crop happened to be grown there. It'd be inescapable.
I get the point and it is not all that bad writing. But, people don't die of rabbies all that often.