The History of Rabies in Cats and Dogs.

History of Rabies in Cats and Dogs.

Rabies - a word derived from the Sanskrit, ‘to do violence’ - which was also known in Latin as ‘the madness’ - is apparently one of the oldest documented diseases of humankind. The symptoms described in ancient literature are exactly the same as we see now in modern times.

Various people through the ages, tried to work out where it came from and how it was passed on, mainly due to the effect on humans, which was - before 1900 - madness and certain death!

During the early part of the nineteenth century, European scientists proved in experiments that saliva from rabid humans and dogs would infect healthy dogs. This confirmed the centuries-old suspicion that the cause of rabies being transmitted from one animal to another was associated with the saliva of the rabid animal.

Step Up Louis Pasteur….
Perhaps the most famous of all medical experiments involved the early use of a rabies vaccine in humans by Louis Pasteur, which had proved successful only in dogs. On July 6, 1885, he administered his first ‘human vaccine’ to a 9-year old boy who had been attacked by a dog - which almost certainly had rabies. The boy was given thirteen separate injections over the following 2 weeks, and survived.

However this isn’t the end of the rabies story. Only certain countries have cheap and plentiful access to the modern versions of these vaccines. Even now, only developed countries can get vaccinations at a low cost prior to infection at a low cost, and not every country even has access to the vaccine given after infection.

Facts like these go to explain why there were still 55,000 reported human cases of rabies last year alone, with no doubt a large number more that went unreported in isolated communities across the globe.

Rabies Today: 
WHO claim that a huge majority of infected humans last year were children under the age of 15, who were bitten, scratched or licked (on broken skin) by feral or domestic but free roaming dogs. Many of these children were just unable to get treatment either because of where they lived or the very high cost.

Even in areas where the vector animals are being targeted for oral vaccination in baited foods it is not always successful. Worldwide, the percentage of animals ingesting the vaccine is not above the necessary threshold for total control or eradication. Baiting has been successful in areas of Europe, but even the United States cannot seem to control this disease (Hawaii is only rabies free due to it’s isolated location).

It would seem as though the world will have rabies for some time to come.

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