Amazon peoples can survive rabies infection

REVELATIONS about the rabies virus might prove that rabies infections are not necessarily fatal without treatment.

Peruvian researchers studied the blood from 63 people living in remote communities in the Peruvian Amazon, some of whom had reported previous bat bites, who were at risk of rabies from vampire bats, .

They found that 11% of those tested showed protection against the disease and only one person with protection had a prior rabies vaccination.

Ten per cent seemed to have survived exposure without any medical intervention.

“This type of thorough and persistent scientific rabies investigation lends continued support to the belief that even the most dangerous of infectious diseases may be amenable to treatment,” said a disease expert commenting on the study.
Am J Trop Med Hyg 2012; 87:206-215