We all know, of course, that rabies is usually spread when an afflicted animal bites another one – and that this aggressiveness is a major symptom of the disease. But do we know why rabid animals become vicious? Is it because the illness makes the suffering critter unable to swallow food or water, so the poor thing just goes nuts from thirst and hunger and pain? Or does the germ’s assault on the poor beastie’s braiin and nervous system cause it to become irritable and/or frightened, thus triggering assaultive behaviours? Is this something we won’t be able to find out until we figure out how to speak Dog or Skunk?
My second question is about those humans unfortunate enough to contract the dread illness, inspired by a half-remembered horror flick I caught at the drive-in many years ago – it was about people who got rabies and (this being a drive-in horror flick) started biting chunks out of their fellow-man and just generally being murderous. Of course this was mostly bullshizz, but – would a rabid person be apt to go homicidally insane? Would an urge to bite other people manifest itself? I know, I know, there’s never been but one person xurvive rabies, so nobody’s around to tell us what the afflicted person undergoes subjectively, but do we have any inkling?