Abstract
Rabies is a highly infectious viral disease that can easily ruin and eventually end the lives of both humans and animals alike. Rabies comes in two forms for animals. It comes in the form of paralytic rabies, which is the kind that puts you in paralysis right from the beginning, skipping the symptoms of agitation and excitability. Rabies also appears in the form of furious rabies, which is completely different in the way that it makes the victim restless, vicious and agitated. When humans get rabies, their symptoms start out with simple headaches and fevers and later progresses to terrible things such as becoming hydrophobic because of painful throat spasms and paralysis. A definite diagnosis of rabies needs lab analysis of saliva and brain tissue to detect the virus. However, rabies cannot be diagnosed during the incubation period. This means that the definitive diagnosis is only possible late in the disease or after the victim’s death
Symptoms
Rabies is a viral disease that can be contracted through punctured skin by an infected entity. Not only can animals be infected by it, but humans can too. If it is not diagnosed in time, then the probability of mortality will be almost certain. However, if caught in the early stages, rabies can be treated. An animal exposed to the virus may not have symptoms for two weeks, or even months. The virus can be found in an animal’s saliva days before any other signs appear.
In animals, rabies can come in two ways. One is furious rabies, which goes straight to the brain. The other is paralytic rabies, which severely affects your spinal cord. Both of these will kill you if not treated on time.
They both show the same early symptoms. This includes simple things like loss of appetite. ...
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...s is thirty to sixty days. A rock solid diagnosis is only possible late in the disease or after death.
In conclusion, rabies is an infectious viral disease with usually fatal results. There’s no way of getting a diagnosis before it is too late. If a person ever suspects themselves of having rabies they should go to a doctor as soon as possible.
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Works Cited
Jackson, Alan, Wunner, William. Rabies. San Diego, CA: Academic, 2002.
“Rabies.” eMedicineHealth.com. October 2005. Accessed July 19, 2006. http://www.emedicinehealth.com/rabies/page3_em.htm
United States Department of Agriculture. “Rabies Symptoms.” 2006. Accessed July 19, 2006. http://www.michigan.gov/mda/0,1607,7-125-1566_2310_2326-11626--, 00.html
“Neurological Symptoms and Diagnosis: Rabies.” July 2005. Accessed July 19, 2006. http://tjsamson.client.web-health.com/web-health/topics/GeneralHealth/Rabies
Now he could have died differently, some people think that Edgar Allen Poe could have died from rabies. The doctor that he went to had written a report and a doctor today compared the report and concluded that he had succumbed to rabies. The report had many symptoms of rabies but many other things too. Other doctors say that he could may have not died from rabies but from hydrophobia which is caused from rabies. It was reported that he didn’t drink any water at the hospital. Some people have been diagnosed with rabies but didn’t recall being bitten by an
Rabies is a deadly virus that occurs in the brain. It can affect all mammals but the ones that are most commonly found with the virus are dogs, bats, raccoons, skunks, and coyotes. This means that any non-mammal can not contract the virus, such as fish, birds, and reptiles (2). The virus can be contracted by humans with saliva transfer with broken skin contact from an animal which has the disease. As this is the most common form of transferring the disease it is very believable that Tea Cake contracts the virus from the wild dog that “managed to bite [him] high up on his cheek bone once” (1). The rabies virus works by being a bullet shaped virus that directly attacks th...
Moreover polio is a deadly disease that is caused by a highly contagious virus entering the nervous system in the brain or spinal cord causing temporary or permanent paralysis. There are three
More evidence that points to Poe dying of rabies is his behavior at the tavern and the hospital. Dr. Benitez explains that Poe was only semi-conscious at the tavern and was reported to have been wearing another person’s clothes. At the hospital, Poe was also reported to be exhibiting hydrophobia. Rabies victims commonly exhibit hydrophobia, since water becomes painfully hard to swallow. Poe also refused alcohol once brought to him at the hospital.
...at in domestic animals, which indicates wild animals cause a higher risk to humans. Controlling the disease in susceptible wild free-ranging animal populations is implemented by oral vaccination and recombinant rabies vaccine by use of vaccine-containing bait. The best prevention is decreasing chances to expose to the disease. Once a patient is suspected as a rabies case, the physician and local health administrator should decide whether infection actually occurs and whether a risk of rabies exists in the geographic area. Once the identification is completed, the patient should receive post-exposure prophylaxis immediately, which contains the combination of local wound cleansing, human rabies immune globulin (HRIG) and rabies vaccine. The population such as veterinarians, animal handlers that have higher risk to be infected should receive pre-exposure immunization.
...an animal that is hosting the virus. The fact that when the autopsy occurred he had no flesh wounds that may have resulted from the contact of an animal. There is also the reasoning that where would Poe come in contact with this animal? He was a very silent man who spent most of his time inside devoting his life toward poetry. The only plausible animal that he may have come in contact with would be his personal cat. She died but not of rabies. She died due to Edgar’s wife not feeding her and letting her starve to death. Though the article may state that all of the symptoms match that of rabies. The truth behind that is that only one to two of the symptoms match that of which Poe was experiencing were the actual symptoms that rabies carries. Though this theory is highly credible, not enough information really surrounds the topic for there to be a clean diagnosis.
Once the rabies disease shows symptoms on the victim it becomes impossible to cure because the disease has already spread through out the entire nervous system. Did Zora Neil Hurston accurately portray the rabies disease in the novel as to real life? Because in the novel Hurston did portray the symptoms accurately. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston gave Janie's husband, Tea Cake, great characteristics of having contracted the disease. Some of the characteristics that were shown in the novel were Tea Cake gagging when drinking liquids, bad headaches and the time period it took for the symptoms of rabies to finally show up.
Rabies, literally meaning “furious” in Latin, is commonly known throughout the ages for its terrifying effects on both humans and animals alike. Because the disease is fatal, people throughout the world have put greatest effort to find ways of controlling and preventing the disease. Natural remedies and protection amulets were used until Pasteur’s discovery of the vaccine. Based on those findings, people have altered techniques to make the vaccine. However, recently, there have been two particular cases concerning rabies. One woman survived the disease by an induced coma without receiving the vaccine. Another case a common organ donor infected with rabies killed all the recipients. These medical mysterious surprised many scientist even today.
In some cases of rabies victims might not have bite marks showing they were bitten, But their actions show otherwise.The letter “Rabies Death Theory” says, “the virus can be incubated in human as long as a year”.This means someone can get bittenr in a year ago and wouldnt show symptoms until the virus get stronger or appears. This case Poe showed no signs of being physically bitten but his actions showed he had rabies.
Rabies is spread from animal to humans through contact with infected saliva of both willed and domestic animal. Roughly 98% of people in developing that are infected with rabies die, because the vaccine is hard to come by in these countries. The majority of these cases are children (Williamson, 2010). Dogs are the main domestic animal that carries of rabies but, cats can also transmit this disease. Wild animals that carry the infection include bats, raccoons, and skunks.
Rabies is a deadly virus spread to people from the saliva of infected animals. The symptoms of rabies are perspiring heavily, shouting at nothing, and hallucination. Poe's doctor, Dr. Henry Wilde, said, "[Poe] had all the features of encephalitic rabies." While in the hospital, Pow was very confused and belligerent, he soon died. He had no bites or scratches, however, rabies can take up to a year to show symptoms. He could have been infected by cats, since he was fond of and had many of them. However, if he did die of rabies, the doctors would have known automatically and wouldn't rule cause of death "unknown." In the 19th century, the rabies virus was very common, all dogs had to be
Many people believe Poe died of rabies, however this is not the case. As Kenneth Silverman states in his story Poe's Final Days, Poe was found very intoxicated, semi-conscious, and dressed in someone else's clothes (184). If Poe was extremely drunk, the claims of him staying away from alcohol would be wrong. "The writer was so sensitive to alcohol that a glass of wine would make him violently ill for days"(Benitez 188). This would be false information because Poe had previously talked about his drinking habits. Robert Benedetto and Burton Pollin wrote in If Only
Due to the lack of evidence in Pollen and Benedetto’s letter, it is more likely that Poe’s may have died due to rabies. According to Pollen and Benedetto who tried to dispute the rabies theory, Poe’s cat did not have rabies, and as such could not have rabies. However, Dr. Benitez did not say Poe’s cat was to blame. Also, in the late 1800’s there were no vaccinations for animals or for rabies.
This is essential for someone to contract the disease. The rabies theory also does not make sense because in those days rabies was a well-known disease: “Rabies was well known as to causes and symptoms, including itching and other sensations that could affect an entire limb or side of body. How could Dr. Moran (the doctor that took care of Poe in the hospital in the days before he died) and his staff ignore such symptoms in a patient?” (Pollin and Benedetto, 189). Some might argue that Poe’s cat gave him the disease, but Caterina showed no signs of rabies, and died of starvation because she was deserted after Poe’s death. There is no strong evidence to attribute Poe’s death to rabies, so he must’ve died of