This is probably a dumb question, but if we eliminate the hydrophobia caused by rabies, would it increase the survival rate of active rabies?
This is probably a dumb question, but if we eliminate the hydrophobia caused by rabies, would it increase the survival rate of active rabies?
I've been learning some about rabies and learned about rabies causing hydrophobia. This is just a theory, I'm not saying I know anything about this topic to be knowledgeable, but if we could get someone with rabies to not fear water, could they survive?
You're viewing a single thread.
The Milwaukee Protocol is a treatment plan that is essentially a more advanced version of what you’re asking. The patient is put in a medically induced coma and then given antivirals and IV fluids, which avoids the issue of hydrophobia.
It got a lot of press because one person survived on it (a big deal given that rabies is a death sentence once symptoms appear) but this success hasn’t been reproduced with other patients. A paper on the protocol has a remarkably blunt title: Critical Appraisal of the Milwaukee Protocol for Rabies: This Failed Approach Should Be Abandoned.
and didnt they use it on that girl that survived cause she didnt report the bite until it was too late, so it was either try something dangerously crazy like Mulwaukee Protocol, or just die miserably?
I guess whether this protocol should be abandoned, rather than iterated on to improve its chances of success, to me, depends on the effect the coma has on the patient's quality of life while the protocol is attempted. It's arguably more humane to put someone in a medically induced coma while they're still sane. If the protocol fails, the patient is at least not conscious while their brain is deteriorating.
I'm gonna go watch House.
One thing that has since come out about rabies is that it's "100%" fatality rate is actually slightly overstated. Populations have been found with biological evidence of widespread rabies infections in apparently-healthy adults that never showed symptoms, for example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7017994/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7077287/
Last I heard experts talking about this, it seemed like we're not really sure what that means. Maybe there's some immunity or suitability in these populations we have not born witness to and studied.
There are also absolutely more than 1 people to have been confirmed to survive rabies. The numbers are very small, but I know there's at least one other from the middle of the 19th century. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/first-rabies-survivor-boy-1971-cure-vaccine
As always, a lot we don't know about this disease. It is very possible that the Milwaukee Protocol is not the reason that girl survived -- hell, it might've even done overall harm -- because an n of one is just not science. She may have had a random, purely lucky medical quirk that meant she would've survived anyway. We really cannot know.
Science Journalism doesn't quite do its diligence on this subject. It REALLY likes to report about the fringe science/only one known survivor. Water is quite a bit muddier than that.
Critical Appraisal of the Milwaukee Protocol for Rabies: This Failed Approach Should Be Abandoned
Well you got a better idea?
I looked, and they don't.
Yes. Get vaccinated before symptoms appear. If you don't, you are almost guaranteed to die no matter what intervention is attempted.
We should make a new protocol where if you didn't get the vaccine, we just fucking kill you.
It seems like this would be the most humane way to “treat” it, but maybe I’m missing something?