Rabies Still Claims 40,000+ Lives A Year

Louis Pasteur’s vaccine can save anybody – but only if it is given in time. Full-blown rabies is lethal even today.

About 125 years ago, one single stray dog, which behaved aggressively, could clear a busy shopping street in a split second. People fled in panic to avoid being infected with rabies.

Rabies is a viral disease that attacks the brain. Sick animals become aggressive and finally die. Neither animals nor people can be saved, once the disease has broken out. Rabies will cause death no matter what. The infected individuals are seized with cramps, when they try to drink, and will gradually weaken, until they become unconscious.

Thanks to Pasteur, rabies can now be prevented by vaccination. And even if an animal or a human being has already been bitten and infected, the vaccine can efficiently prevent the disease from developing, if only it is given in time.

Rabies is a rare disease in Scandinavia, but in most of the world, the disease still exists among wild animals as well as among human beings.

Rabies is by no means as rare as many North Europeans think it is. Every year, the disease claims 40,00070,000 lives, the majority of which are recorded in Indian slums, where people are bitten by mad dogs.