Postexposure prophylaxis for rabies in resource-limited/poor countries.

Human rabies is essentially a fatal disease once clinical signs develop. Rabies postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) consists of thorough wound care in combination with administration of rabies immunoglobulin and rabies vaccine. This is highly effective in rabies prevention if carried out diligently.

Postexposure rabies prophylaxis completed in 1 week: preliminary study.

Background: Patients exposed to a rabid animal often travel long distances to receive postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), which requires 4 or 5 visits. Reducing the number of clinic visits would not only reduce costs for the patient but may also help increase compliance to receive complete PEP. We made an effort to develop PEP completed in 1 week.

Failure of rabies postexposure prophylaxis in patients presenting with unusual manifestations.

We report an atypical case of paralytic rabies presenting with trismus followed by limb weakness, areflexia, ophthalmoparesis, and bilateral ptosis. Atypical presentations and history of rabies postexposure prophylaxis led to delayed diagnosis. Nucleocapsid and glycoprotein genes of rabies viruses from the patient's and biting dog's brains were of identical sequences.

Survival of naturally infected rabid dogs and cats.

A total of 1820 dogs and 332 cats that appeared ill or had bitten humans or animals were observed for >or=10 days. Of these, 957 dogs and 94 cats that were confirmed to be rabid survived <10 days after admission to our institution. This study supports current recommendations that dogs and cats that are suspected of being rabid should be euthanized and examined or, if this is inappropriate, confined and observed for 10 days.

Immunosuppression in rabies virus infection mediated by lymphocyte apoptosis.

Previously, we demonstrated a depression of cell-mediated immunity in mice by street rabies virus infection. In the present study, we investigated several events during the course of infection and looked for alterations in the host lymphoid cells for evidence of apoptosis. Total cellular RNA was extracted from muscle tissues at the inoculation site of peripherally infected mice at different intervals after infection.

Detection of rabies virus antigen in dog saliva using a latex agglutination test.

Dog bites are responsible for more than 90% of human rabies deaths in Asia. We developed a simple and inexpensive test based on latex agglutination (LA) for rabies virus antigen detection in dog saliva. Rabies virus antigen could be detected by agglutination on a glass slide using latex particles coated with gamma globulin.

Fluorescent antibody test for rabies: prospective study of 8,987 brains.

A prospective study of 8,987 canine, feline, human, and other mammalian brains (and one avian brain) was undertaken. The brains were analyzed for rabies antigens; two samples were obtained from each brainstem, and one sample was obtained from each hippocampus. The samples were stained with rabies conjugate and examined by use of fluorescence microscopy.