Definition

• Rabies is a deadly neurological disease that can attack any animal. The virus that causes rabies cannot become airborne, and it is passed on when an infected animal bites another. Rabies has no known cure.
  
  

Causes and Symptoms

• The virus polioencephalitis invades an animal's body, travels through the central nervous system, and eventually attacks the gray matter of the animal's brain, according to PetMD. The virus causes brain swelling and results in a range of symptoms that include apprehension, nervousness and fever followed by restlessness and irritability accompanied by furious behavior. The final phase of rabies includes lethargy, inability to swallow and then death.
  
  

History

• Louis Pasteur developed the rabies vaccine in 1885, according to Brown University. He used the first human vaccine to treat and cure a boy who was bitten by a rabid animal. In the 1950s, the Wistar Institute improved on the methods of preparing and harvesting the vaccine. Today, the vaccine is known as HDCV (human diploid cell vaccine).
  
  

Prevention

• The recombinant rabies vaccine contains dead rabies virus bodies and is used on animals as well as humans. Veterinarians inject this vaccine into an animal's bloodstream to produce antibodies. Those antibodies keep the animal from getting rabies if it's exposed. Rabies vaccinations are part of puppy shots, and are updated annually to protect the animal.
  
  

Treatment

• A recombinant vaccination is also used on dogs and cats that have been bitten and might have rabies. As long as the animal is not yet showing symptoms of rabies, the vaccination prevents the virus from traveling to the brain to kill the animal. Once an animal begins to show symptoms, the vaccine becomes useless.