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The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

accuweather.com

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Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#21
post #8

From the related articles: https://www.accuweather.com/en/health-wellness/kissing-bug-d... Chagas disease is the one that scares me, since it seems easy to contract and not know it. Rabies is definitely more lethal but hopefully you could recognize the exposure event and get treated.

Worth noting that many human cases of rabies infection involve bat bites, which (especially from vampire bats) can be hard to notice at all if they happened very suddenly or while you were asleep. The scarier thing is that once the virus is inside you, the arrival of symptoms can only mean that it's already too late for prophylaxis.

I remember the case of a woman in California, a teacher, who picked up a stunned bat that had accidentally flown into her school room one day. While she carried it over to the window to release it, the bat bit her without her even noticing. Weeks later she was diagnosed with rabies and died soon after. Only after the diagnosis did anyone make the connection to the incident with the little bat.

Just found a link, to confirm I'd remember the essential details right. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-teacher-dies-bitten-...

Edit: As for chagas, it's scary but not something worth blowing too far out of proportion either. I live in a country where chagas is endemic and even here it's exceptionally rare outside of deeply rural areas with lots of poverty and extremely low quality housing. The housing is a key transmission factor actually, since the bug tends to infect people with the parasite while they sleep, and it more easily enters barely-together rural shacks than it does properly built houses and apartments.

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience dog owners just do not care. Vaccine costs time and money. The same with training. Most dog owners are just lazy, and do not care. Adding some sophisticated explanations on top of that is pointless.

Well, in my experience, "in my experience" anecdotes are lazy. Though, I'm sure this is generally more true for some breeds more so than others.

Those people do not care about basic hygiene or safety, but somehow develop and practise complex medical opinions!

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#23
The short-term effects of relaxing vaccine requirements won’t be obvious right away, but the consequences will likely compound over time. I don’t know how much time of lower coverage it will take before we start to see measles, rabies, or others become regular problems again.

If you’re traveling, it’s more important than ever to make sure your own vaccines are fully up to date. And if you’re in a high-risk group, the US may not be the safest destination in the near future.

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#24
post #20

> six people have died from rabies nationwide since September 2024, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson confirmed to CNN. In addition, the CDC is tracking 14 potential outbreaks in 20 states, So is that high or low? It would be useful to know what the median and max cases per year has been over the last few decades. 14 potential doesn't sound that bad if we're investigating them out of an abu…

According to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, "about 1-3 human rabies cases are reported in the US each year": https://www.nfid.org/infectious-disease/rabies/

I would say that 6 deaths is definitely high compared to 1-3 cases.

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#25

Scary. This site has useful information about rabies and the treatment but other articles say more about the outbreaks. So far there is no pattern. It spans the entire country, east coast to west coast to Alaska. The animals involved have no pattern either.

Rising global temperatures will likely lead to increased pathogen activity.

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#26

Here's an article from late August with some detail [1], including the affected states: New York, Massachusetts, Alaska, Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont. I can't find anything about it on the CDC website though. Edited to add another charming detail from the article: "A 2023 study published in the journal Vaccine found in a nationally representative sample of American…

We should rebrand vaccines as "freedom shots" and get AOC to play along and call them problematic.

Honestly, this is just stupid in just such a way that it might work well for the right kind of person. I'm not at all joking.

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#27
post #20

> six people have died from rabies nationwide since September 2024, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson confirmed to CNN. In addition, the CDC is tracking 14 potential outbreaks in 20 states, So is that high or low? It would be useful to know what the median and max cases per year has been over the last few decades. 14 potential doesn't sound that bad if we're investigating them out of an abu…

According to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, "about 1-3 human rabies cases are reported in the US each year": https://www.nfid.org/infectious-disease/rabies/ I would say that 6 deaths is definitely high compared to 1-3 cases .

1-3 cases is nearly equivalent to 1-3 deaths.

Rabies is almost 100% lethal after symptoms develop, and we don’t count people exposed who don’t develop symptoms as a rabies case.

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#28

The short-term effects of relaxing vaccine requirements won’t be obvious right away, but the consequences will likely compound over time. I don’t know how much time of lower coverage it will take before we start to see measles, rabies, or others become regular problems again. If you’re traveling, it’s more important than ever to make sure your own vaccines are fully up to date. And if you’re in a high-risk group, the…

> The short-term effects of relaxing vaccine requirements won’t be obvious right away, but the consequences will likely compound over time. I don’t know how much time of lower coverage it will take before we start to see measles, rabies, or others become regular problems again.

Whatever you think of the current HHS leadership, pet dogs and wild animals are not getting rabies from unvaccinated humans.

Re: The US Is Tracking 14 Potential Rabies Outbreaks in 20 States

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience dog owners just do not care. Vaccine costs time and money. The same with training. Most dog owners are just lazy, and do not care. Adding some sophisticated explanations on top of that is pointless.

Well, in my experience, "in my experience" anecdotes are lazy. Though, I'm sure this is generally more true for some breeds more so than others.

> Well, in my experience, "in my experience" anecdotes are lazy

In this case this reinforces their argument

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