The Ancient Curse: Rabies

摘要: Rabies is one of the oldest recognized zoonotic diseases. The first recorded description canine rabies was apparently made by Democritus around 500 B.C.E. Aristotle, writing in his Natural History Animals, described dogs suffering from a madness causing irritability and noted that other animals became diseased after being bitten these sick dogs. Little has changed with this human-carnivore dynamic since time Aristotle’s observations. In most areas world where disease enzootic, carnivores remain predominant sources human virus infection. For lucky few live countries been eliminated, epidemiology continues to implicate bats as an important emerging reservoir. Bats are also focus ongoing discovery new lyssaviruses (15 total or putative species), many which still poorly understood.