Haillie Price
Microbiology
9/11/13
Dr. Gallo
Rabies
The term “Lyssavirus” or better known as Rabies is derived from the Latin
words rabhas meaning, “to do violence” and lyssa from lud meaning “violent”. Rabies
has been around since circa 2000 B.C. When the first case of rabies was detected in
the Mesopotamin Codex of Eshnunna, they created a law, which stated “the owner of
a dog showing symptoms of rabies should take preventative measure against bites.
If another person were bitten by a rabid dog and later died, the owner was heavily
fined”(Ryan KJ). The fear of rabies first came about in France and Belgium when
there was an outbreak in the 19th century. There was something called the “St.
Hubert’s Key” which was a metal nail or bar with a decorative head and was used as
a traditional cure for rabies. The key was heated and then the head was pressed
against the spot where the person had been bitten by the animal that had contracted
rabies. The heat was used to cauterize and sterilize the wound preventing the
formation of bacteria and did not allow it to enter and infect the person.
Louis Pasteur tested post exposure treatments in 1885 and the attachment of
the tongue was cut and removed, as this is where he thought that rabies was
originating. This practice later ended when the discovery of the actual cause of
rabies was found. Louis Pasteur created the first vaccines for rabies. He grew the
virus in rabbits and then weakened it by drying the nerve tissue that was being
infected by the virus. Emilie Roux who was a French doctor and colleague of Pasteur
originally created the vaccine. She had been working with a killed vaccine that was
produced by desiccating the spinal cords of the infected rabbits. Pasteur first tested
the vaccine of the nine-year-old boy who had earlier been attacked by a rabid dog.
Nine months after the vaccine treatment, the boy was seen to be in good health.
The rabies virus is a rod- or bullet-shaped, single-stranded, negative-sense,
un segmented enveloped RNA virus and encodes five proteins. It un coats in the
cytoplasm of infected cells and the genome is transcribed by a virion-associated
RNA- dependant RNA polymerase. Viral RNA is then translated into individual viral
proteins. Replications then occurs with the synthesis of positive-stranded RNA
templates for the production of progeny negative-stranded DNA then the virus
enters the peripheral nervous system and directly migrates into the brain and may
replicate muscle tissue. It then spreads to numerous other organs.
References
Drew WL (2004). "Chapter 41: Rabies". In Ryan KJ, Ray CG (editors). Sherris Medical
Microbiology (4th ed.). McGraw Hill. pp. 597–600. ISBN 0-8385-8529-9.
Cotran RS, Kumar V, Fausto N (2005). Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease
(7th ed.). St. Louis: Elsevier/Saunders. p. 1375. ISBN 0-7216-0187-1.
"Rabies". World Health Organization (WHO). September 2013.
Voice of America. 2009-07-08. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
"Rabies in the U.S.". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).