Rabies
Definition
Rabies is a rare but serious disease caused by a virus. The virus that causes rabies is carried in saliva. It is transmitted when an infected animal bites another animal. Rabies affects humans and other mammals.
Another name for rabies is hydrophobia (pronounced HI-dro-fo-bee-uh). Hydrophobia means "fear of water." About half the people infected with rabies develop this symptom. Other symptoms include fever; depression; confusion; painful muscle spasms; sensitivity to touch, loud noise, and light; extreme thirst; painful swallowing; excessive salivation; and loss of muscle quality. Rabies can be prevented and treated by immunization (a protective treatment that causes the body's immune system to build up resistance to a particular disease; usually given as a shot). Without treatment, however, a person who is infected with rabies will almost certainly die.
Description
Worldwide, approximately fifteen thousand cases of human rabies occur each year. Remarkably, although more than one million persons in the United States are bitten each year by animals, only one or two die of rabies each year. Nonetheless, rabies is likely to remain a public-health problem in the future. Humans are continually moving into lands occupied by wild animals. As they do, they run the risk of being bitten by an animal with rabies.
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