# Rabies Symptoms in Humans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 28, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517 "2007-12-28T20:32:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/1 "2007-12-28T20:32:21Z")
I know that carnivores like dogs often go mad and become aggressive–I read “Cujo.” But what about people? I have seen photos of people restrained to their beds. Is this because of attacking? (Also, in the recent film “I Am Legend,” it was said that the infected have similar symptoms to rabies.) [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies#Transmission_and_symptoms) just says: > [@](#): > > The period between infection and the first flu-like symptoms is normally two to twelve weeks, but can be as long as two years. Soon after, the symptoms expand to slight or partial paralysis, cerebral dysfunction, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, agitation, abnormal behavior, paranoia, hallucinations, progressing to delirium. Delirium could mean a lot of things. So, I was wondering…do people go insane when they have rabies? ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/2 "2007-12-28T20:36:02Z")
Symptoms include [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=446711). ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/3 "2007-12-28T21:15:33Z")
Inability to separate your OPs into several paragraphs? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/4 "2007-12-28T21:31:32Z")
If you have **any reason** to suspect that you have Rabies at this moment, or that anybody you know does, go to the Emergency Room RIGHT NOW!! ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/5 "2007-12-28T21:37:23Z")
I haven’t been bitten or anything. I was just asking out of curiosity because of all the reading I’d done on rabies. Or am I being whooshed? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/6 "2007-12-28T21:54:34Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] I haven’t been bitten or anything. I was just asking out of curiosity because of all the reading I’d done on rabies. Or am I being whooshed? [/QUOTE] No, but if you were asking the Internet when something that bit you was foaming at the mouth, you could really and seriously _die_. That’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/7 "2007-12-28T22:22:08Z")
I definitely don’t have rabies. There’s no chance of that. Believe me, as paranoid as I am, I’d be in the ER right now if I did. This is purely academic. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/8 "2007-12-28T22:30:45Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] I definitely don’t have rabies. There’s no chance of that. Believe me, as paranoid as I am, I’d be in the ER right now if I did. This is purely academic. [/QUOTE] It’s just that the stakes are really high on this one - what, one person has ever survived it once infection sets in? And it’s no way to die. ---
**Author:** ![valleyofthedolls](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a4c791/32.png) [@valleyofthedolls](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/valleyofthedolls)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/9 "2007-12-28T22:58:08Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] I know that carnivores like dogs often go mad and become aggressive–I read “Cujo.” But what about people? I have seen photos of people restrained to their beds. Is this because of attacking? (Also, in the recent film “I Am Legend,” it was said that the infected have similar symptoms to rabies.) [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies#Transmission_and_symptoms) just says: Delirium could mean a lot of things. So, I was wondering…do people go insane when they have rabies? [/QUOTE] I’m not a doctor but it’s my understanding that they do or would if they had the opportunity, hence the restraints. There’s a method to rabies’ madness. The crazed behavior you see is the way the virus spreads itself and keeps itself alive, from animal to animal or animal to human so it would follow that an infected human would exhibit aggressive behaviors, it’s how the virus evolved to ensure survival. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/10 "2007-12-28T23:27:14Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] It’s just that the stakes are really high on this one - what, one person has ever survived it once infection sets in? And it’s no way to die. [/QUOTE] Yup, one person, though that may change in the near future, based on the article in _Scientific American_ written by a doctor who successfully treated her. Details about it can be found [here.](http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/1031002746.html) ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/11 "2007-12-28T23:34:07Z")
I thought several people had survived after the onset of infection but after having treatment, and that only one person (the one linked to) had survived without the vaccine. ETA: from the [wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies) article: > [@](#): > > There are only six known cases of a person surviving symptomatic rabies, and only one known case of survival in which the patient received no rabies–specific treatment either before or after illness onset.[1] ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/12 "2007-12-28T23:35:28Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] If you have **any reason** to suspect that you have Rabies at this moment, or that anybody you know does, go to the Emergency Room RIGHT NOW!! [/QUOTE] Why should _I_ go to an emergency room if I suspect that someone _else_ has rabies? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/13 "2007-12-28T23:37:57Z")
[QUOTE=psychonaut] Why should _I_ go to an emergency room if I suspect that someone _else_ has rabies? [/QUOTE] Because people with rabies shouldn’t drive or operate heavy machinery. :dubious: 😛 ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/14 "2007-12-29T01:21:29Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] Yup, one person, though that may change in the near future, based on the article in _Scientific American_ written by a doctor who successfully treated her. Details about it can be found [here.](http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/1031002746.html) [/QUOTE] Well, last I heard, the procedure that saved Jeanna’s life has failed on at least six other rabies victims so far. But the doctor treating her has said that these so-called treatments didn’t follow the procedure properly … oh, I see it’s fairly well documented in the article you mention. Fascinating stuff. There was a recent plot line in the NBC sitcom **The Office** where one of the employees ended up with a bat forced up against her head by a bag, and several episodes later she was hit by a car and the hospital gave her rabies vaccine just in case. As a result, the clueless boss, Michael, staged a Walk-a-Thon to benefit rabies victims, and everybody thought it was a huge joke because rabies was so rare and already had a vaccine. But as I was watching it I was thinking It actually **would** be a good idea to get the word out that any time you have a close encounter with a wild animal like a bat, it’s vitally important to get vaccinated, because rabies isn’t like other diseases where you can get sick, go to the hospital, and get fixed up; once the symptoms start showing up, **that’s it** , you’re going to die horribly, unless you’re one of the lucky six people in all of human history who have survived after symptoms manifested themselves (usually with significant brain damage; Jeanna is an incredibly lucky person to have turned out so well, and even she required many months of rehabilitation). ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/15 "2007-12-29T02:23:01Z")
And many times, a person won’t even know they have been bitten by a bat. I have heard that just finding a bat in your house is reason enough to get the vaccine. Especially now that it is simply and relatively painless, unlike the the legendary “10 shots in the stomach” thing… ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/16 "2007-12-29T02:44:55Z")
[QUOTE=EJsGirl] And many times, a person won’t even know they have been bitten by a bat. I have heard that just finding a bat in your house is reason enough to get the vaccine. Especially now that it is simply and relatively painless, unlike the the legendary “10 shots in the stomach” thing… [/QUOTE] Yes! Thanks, **EJsGirl** , that was the other thing I meant to say in my discussion about that episode of **The Office**. It’s not frequent, but rabies victims have sometimes reported that they saw a bat but had no idea they’d been bitten. And technically rabies can be transmitted by breathing in airborne droplets of saliva, so you wouldn’t necessarily even know it if you were infected. Naturally this scares the hell out of me, but of course the odds of that happening are astronomically low – unless you happen to go into a cave with a huge population of bats, you pretty much have nothing to worry about. And probably not even then. Nevertheless, if I ever found a bat in my house, I’d probably cart the whole family off for rabies vaccines. Or at least get somebody to come capture the bat and test it for rabies, depending on the advice I received from local experts. Rabies is just too horrifying to take the chance. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/17 "2007-12-29T09:51:39Z")
Minor point of clarity: Rabies can infect any mammal, not just carnivores. Cattle are frequently infected. Not all animals react the same way to the virus. Cats are classic for just going off in a corner somewhere to die instead of having the whole crazed-must-bite-you phase. Though they can still become aggressive if you poke at them. Also, from everything I hear from my wildlife rehab buddies, rabies is much more common in skunks than it is in bats. The rabies vaccine itself isn’t the best experience. It’s a series of 3 shots over the course of about a month. As vet students, we’re in a high enough risk of exposure that we’re all vaccinated before starting school. Some of my classmates reacted rather poorly, which was awesome when you’re just starting an intensive course of study. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/18 "2007-12-29T13:44:56Z")
[QUOTE=Pullet] Minor point of clarity: Rabies can infect any mammal, not just carnivores. [/QUOTE] Except certain North American Possums. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/19 "2007-12-29T14:38:56Z")
[QUOTE=EJsGirl] And many times, a person won’t even know they have been bitten by a bat. I have heard that just finding a bat in your house is reason enough to get the vaccine. Especially now that it is simply and relatively painless, unlike the the legendary “10 shots in the stomach” thing… [/QUOTE] But it _can_ be expensive (if you’re going for 7 shots in the arm, and not just the “normal” vaccination that they give to vets and the like). _This American Life_ recounted a story of a woman who’d been attacked by a rabid racoon, and ran into all kinds of stumbling blocks about getting the vaccination because the various parties _didn’t want to pay for the shots!_ :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517/20 "2007-12-29T15:03:02Z")
Since I’m fairly well-off, I can say this, I guess… I would pay a pretty high price to save my own life or the life of a loved one. How expensive is it? I found a 2007 cite that said the series was 150 pounds UK, which is a lot of money but still not outrageous. I mean, if the alternative could be death, I think I could come up with $300… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rabies-symptoms-in-humans/431517.md?page=2)