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Wednesday, November 24, 2004A girl of 15 has survived rabies without vaccination. Jeanna Geise was given a combination of drugs which cured her rabies. Her doctors induced a coma in order to stop the spread of the infection. They then started administering a cocktail of drugs. A spinal tap after treatment showed that her immune system was effectively fighting off the virus. She was kept in coma for a week. Dr Rodnay Willoughty, Wisconsin's Children's Hospital, said "No one had really done this before, even in animals. None of the drugs are fancy. If this works it can be done in a lot of countries." ...Jeanna had been bitten by a rabid bat while attending a church service. Unfortunately, she did not get treatment immediately. About five weeks later she started showing symptoms of rabies - it had attacked her nervous system. ..Rabies is a fairly big killer - about 100 people a day die from it (worldwide). Knowing that rabies, after onset of the infection, is virtually 100% fatal, doctors decided (with parent's consent) to try the experimental treatment within four hours of receiving her. Don't look for this to take the place of rabies vaccination, but it might provide hope for those who for some reason fail to get the vaccine after being bitten. (And remember, bats are assumed rabid until proven otherwise.) posted by Sydney on 11/24/2004 08:11:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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