Rabies is the only tool for understanding lyssants

Rabies is the only tool for understanding lyssants

We glibly talk about the brain regions and circuits of the rage circuit as givens, but they cannot be effectively studied at the present time.  The risks of working with rabies-infected animals as well as the cruelty of forcing experimental subjects to experience the lethal effects of rabies infection render this approach unacceptable.  We must, instead, be able to work with the native target for the virus, able to turn on, and off, the effects that the virus would produce, without the fear of actual infection and death. 

Early on in the study of animal psychology investigators stimulated various regions of the brain to see what would result.  In some cases they induced behaviors, in cats especially, that had characteristics of attack or of defensive rage.  However, without an object to fully express these behaviors upon, it was difficult to say what was being produced; aggression, defense, rage, or simply a collection of muscle movements.  In light of the uncertainty of what these collections of behaviors meant, they were termed “sham rage” and investigation of them stopped. 

Another tool that held promise was a result of damaging a brain region known as the septal nucleus, an area in the heart of the rage circuit.  Damage to this area sometimes produced a syndrome very much like furious rabies where sudden noises or movements would result in a sudden, full-blown attack on whatever happened to be near.  I can personally vouch that the attack rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail is no fiction!  The speed and ferocity of a raging rabbit flying out of its cage and aiming itself directly at one’s throat is terrifying.  Unfortunately, for our understanding of the basis of rage, this syndrome disappears fairly quickly after the septal area is damaged and is therefore not useful for study. 

Some instances of human rage, like that of Charles Whitman’s murder spree from the University of Texas Tower, can be traced to specific trauma to the brain; in his case a tumor pushing on another structure in the rage circuit called the amygdala.  However, most lyssants, like animals infected with rabies, show no signs of structural damage in the brain.  We know that the amygdala is activated during very stressful events, like those that result in PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).  This activation appears to be necessary for making the emotional memories so strong.  We can presume that this type of activation of the amygdala is important for the amazing feats of strength, etc. that can occur in emotional situations.  On the other hand the amygdala is largely absent in some people.  These people do not feel fear.  The understand that certain situations are dangerous, but they do not express fear in the situation.  They don’t exhibit lyssantic behaviors.  We can expect that pharmacological manipulation of the amygdala or brain regions connected with it will allow us to induce rage.  However, this hasn’t occurred yet, strongly suggesting that the critical neuronal circuits, the critical neurotransmitter receptors, are not known.  But we do know that rabies virus, its targeting motif, can produce rage behaviors, so we can presume that it is affecting the critical receptors. 

Experimental neurobiologists have also studied aggressive behavior, but aggression by itself overlaps only partially with rage.  Even the studies of aggressive behavior have had limited success, in large part because we did not/do not have pharmacological tools to selectively stimulate and block all the subtypes of serotonin receptors that appear to be the most promising underlying mechanisms.  Even when these tools do become available, it is already clear that aggressive behavior is quite different from rabidity.  Aggressive behavior, bullying is one aspect, has a large component of voluntary control with positive reinforcement of past occurrences that lead an individual to continue to use these behaviors.  On the other hand one of the hallmarks of lyssantic behavior is that it does not appear to care whether it is likely to result in a win or a loss, it just rages.  Of course, we presume that lyssantic behavior has been successful in keeping individuals alive and therefore has been kept as an important part of our genetic heritage.  I expect it is possible for people to learn the triggers that can release a lyssant’s rage, but there is still a large difference from aggressive pushiness and impulsive aggression.  Reports about the changes in demeanor of people like Al Capone going beyond their being aggressive to becoming a ‘monster’ with a baseball bat are probably good examples of lyssantic behavior in action.

Our most promising avenue to pursue understanding lyssants and their behavior is still the rabies virus.  However, as long as we have only the lethal virus itself, we will be unable to fulfill our need to understand rage.  We must, and we have the tools to do this, discover the target of the rabies virus; the only psychologically important part of the virus.  Being a virus has largely distracted us from learning the secrets it holds to our own inner selves.  The behaviors it unlocks in its victims are not the result of it being a virus, only its targeting motif is necessary to produce these behaviors.  So, we need to discover the target.  And, as a major added bonus, discovering the target, the CNS receptor, will also provide us the means to discover post-infection treatments for rabies itself.  It’s a win-win-WIN BIG situation.

Lyssants – incidence & prevalence – anyone willing to be census-takers?

Lyssants – incidence & prevalence – anyone willing to be census-takers?

Just how prevalent are lyssants?  At some time we have all been lyssants even if only when we were toddlers and having a temper tantrum.  It is a natural part of our behavioral repertoire.  It plays a critical role when it occurs as defensive rage and allows us to overcome or frighten away an assailant.  And the playful frenzy during sexual relations can serve to strengthen interpersonal attraction, and can help overcome external pressures.  But, for teens and adults, becoming a lyssant often produces more trouble than it solves.  Lyssant behavior is not tolerated in most societies and is quickly punished.  An exception occurs to some regulated degrees in various sports.  Even here, there is increasing recognition of progressive neural damage from multiple physical traumas.  This suggests these outlets for our innate lyssantic behaviors need continual monitoring and improvement in safety equipment and health surveillance. There is no chance, certainly no wish by this author, to try to curtail these means of ‘letting off steam’.  I fully believe this would be disastrous to us as a species and would just move such behaviors further into underground fight clubs and the like.

Given the lack of a specific accepted definition or test, calculating the prevalence of uncontrolled lyssant behavior is presently impossible.  However, some insights into its prevalence may be gained from comorbidity studies.  For example, the occurrence of oppositional defiant disorder and/or conduct disorder in people with ADHD is commonly reported to be 30-50%. Certainly not all are lyssant, but some are.  The rage cycle in people with an autism spectrum disorder is well-recognized.  Some of this behavior is surely lyssantic. The prevalence of Intermittent Explosive Behavior has been estimated to be from 3-7% of the population.  What is crystal clear is that rage that “comes out of nowhere” is common, and more so among people with other conditions that make generating accepted social behavior difficult.  It is also clear that ADHD, autism disorders, bipolar disorder, and others are not synonymous with lyssantic behavior.  Lyssants need to be uniquely defined and specific treatments found for when their behavior interferes with the conduct of their lives.  Specific means to draw it out, like sodium lactate for panic disorder, must be found.  And, as much as I admire the accomplishments of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), I simply do not believe that overt reinforcements or ‘mindfulness’ can address the true measure of lyssantic behavior.  I know a number of people that can recognize they are heading toward having a migraine headache, but they still need pharmacological treatments to blunt or block the migraine headache itself.  Lyssantic behavior is much, much more powerful than that.

there be monsters… actually, they’re lyssants

there be monsters… actually, they’re lyssants

If, as I proclaim, rabidity is a natural part of human behavior that emerges in a number of situations, then we need a single, general term to refer to a person or animal affected in this way.  I introduce a new word, lyssant, to refer to a person or animal exhibiting rabid behavior, however it is induced.  The word derives from the Greek word, lyssa, which refers to rabies, certain kinds of madness, and is the goddess (daimona, i.e. spirit or demon) of rage, fury, and rabies (ref).  Indeed, the formal name for the rabies virus is Lyssavirus.  The Roman equivalent of Lyssa was variously called Ira, Furor, and Rabies.  Although this narrative will continue to use terms such as rabid, vampire, werewolf, intermittent explosive behavior, road rage and others, all refer to a lyssant, a person or animal exhibiting these behaviors.  This term also allows us to dissociate temporarily our discussion from a second set of symptoms of rabies, the so-called dumb or paralytic form.  Lyssa clearly refers to the rage aspect, i.e., furious rabies, and for now, lyssant does also.

Lyssantic behavior is found throughout psychiatry and clinical psychology.  However, its appearance is fragmented, inserted piecemeal into a wide array of behavioral disorders.  Behaviors that include rage are clustered with Impulse Control Disorders where they are uselessly clumped together with kleptomania and compulsive gambling.  Lyssantic behavior is couched in a variety of terms including Impulse Control Disorder, Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Emotional Dysregulation, Impulsive Aggression, and others.  Lyssants and their behaviors are listed among the myriad of symptoms of broader diseases including Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), for example ADHD with Conduct Disorder, and in various subclasses of autism spectrum disorders.  Disorders such as road rage and domestic violence are shunted into corners of Personality Disorders that have no meaningful therapeutic approaches. 

This jumble is clearly the result of a lack of a specific physiological or pharmacological means of categorizing lyssants and their specific set of neuropsychiatric characteristics.  At best it is likened to the temper tantrums of toddlers.  While temper tantrums are surely lyssantic behavior, psychoanalytic analysis of regression to some unconscious psychological trauma is of no use in describing or in treating lyssants.  Given the lack of a specific definition, lyssants are bombarded with anxiolytics, antipsychotics, and antidepressants.  Essentially the full range of psychotherapeutics is thrown at them simply hoping the lyssant will obtain some relief or be controlled.  Maybe also a full dose of sunlight or a stake through the heart for good measure.

By defining a specific term, lyssant, and the behaviors it encompasses, we have the opportunity to untangle this mess.  We can apply the full weight of neuroscience research tools to discover and study the pathways and actions of rabies.  Most usefully, we can discover and study its native target in the central nervous system.  We can already expect this to be successful because our knowledge of the emotional centers of the brain, exemplified by the Papez circuit, are exactly the result of Dr. Papez’s work in determining the avidity of the rabies virus for various regions of the brain.  These regions and their connections are sometimes referred to as the Rage Circuit, and it is in modulating this circuit that we will be able to treat lyssantic behavior gone awry (psychological disorders as well as the actions of mad-men) and to come to understand our own inner vampires and werewolves, that is, come to understand what it means to be a complete human.

Human vampiric virus…. no, it’s much scarier

Human vampiric virus….  no, it’s much scarier

We are, in a revolting sense, lucky that rabies-infected, rabid, victims do not survive long.  Death comes quickly, though not at all mercifully.  One can wonder what would happen if humans could survive infection by rabies, or, if not rabies itself, then a closely related virus.  Even more, perhaps this related virus is what produces real vampires and werewolves!  Thanks to our extraordinary imaginative capacity, a Human Vampiric Virus (HVV to make it sound like a real medical term) has been dreamed up.  The reader can see and hear about it on Animal Planet’s website in its section on Freak Encounters.  This imaginary virus might have been first written about in 1616 in a Treatise on Vampires, written by an Italian scientist Ludovico Fatinelli.  He could have speculated on the role of an invisible pathogen to induce vampirism.  Of course, this is a modern hoax -- thanks to an Amateur Vampirologist for seeing through it [http://doaav.blogspot.com/2011/09/ludovico-fatinelli-exposed.html].  Still, it makes good starting material for a blog.

In order to produce true vampires and werewolves, the virus would have to induce the rapid and reversible growth of our canine teeth and other such bodily transformations as are beyond any biology that we can even conceive.  The painful changes that Prof. Lupin [thanks to J.K. Rowling] and other movie and TV werewolves go through are easily indicative of the utter impossibility.  [And yet, these painful, difficult movements do resonate with the difficult movements of the paralytic (dumb) form of rabies.]  No, we are stuck with rabies itself, producing all the behaviors of our avatars of rage, but without the bodily transformation.

Potentially more likely is that some people may be able to survive rabies infection and then be in a constant state of bloodthirsty, biting behavior.  Although not outside the realm of possibility, this wouldn’t be very useful for the survival of the rabies virus itself.  And, we’ve already noted that humans are poorly designed to pass the virus on to other victims, however much biting is a natural, prepotent behavior for us.  We just can’t sink our teeth into it.  The virus would likely simply die off as its human carrier dies.  Perhaps this is more plausible to occur in carnivores, like wolves.  Still, my guess is that the incessant attempt to bite other members of the pack would result in the, in this case, timely death of the infected victim.  And yet...

What would a living rabid person be like?  They would be the embodiment of several psychological disorders including intermittent explosive behavior, impulsive aggression, extremely prone to road rage, having hair-trigger tempers.  The primary danger wouldn’t be whether one is turned and could pass on the virus.  It is enough that they would maim, mutilate, and murder.  Imagine the ability to produce true ‘dog soldiers’, a movie I still have nightmares about.  The greatest threat probably wouldn’t be an attack by a force of dog soldiers – like Tolkien’s orcs they would probably kill as many of their own kind as any enemy.  The real threat is spreading the rabidity among our own friends and neighbors and the havoc it would wreak on our own people turned and caught up in the madness that is rabies infection.  But this wouldn’t happen by using the rabies virus itself; we’ve seen that it takes weeks or longer to infect its victim.  Not a very efficient weapon.

Could rabies virus be changed to get into the central nervous system (CNS) more quickly?  Possibly, but not likely.  As we will see, it is the targeting vector in the rabies virus that produces its effects.  It does not produce its deadly effects as do most viruses, by multiplying and then destroying the cells it has infected.  We really must stop focusing on the virus aspect of rabies.  It is a virus, obviously, but that’s neither the menace, nor the hope that it represents.  Rabies is cleverer, more insidious than that.  The behaviors it releases are the result of it binding to, presumably blocking (but that also awaits the discovery of its target), the activity of specific types of neuronal receptors – selectively modulating lines of neuronal communication and control.    It takes advantage of what we already are – closet vampires and werewolves – and uses our own behavioral repertoire to get us to pass the virus on to new victims.  In the long run, the multiplication of these receptor ‘blockers’ does overwhelm essential functions of the nervous system resulting in the death of the victim.  But, as it initially infects the CNS, it selectively ratchets up our rage defense attack system, by enhancing it or dampening our social inhibitions, or both.  Luckily for us humans, we generally become exposed to it from short-toothed, clean wounding animals resulting in the paralytic, muscle-weakening effects rather than furious rabies, or perhaps the ataxia and paralysis just limit the victim from being able to actively engage potential new victims.

Getting the rabies virus into the CNS faster would require changing its targeting motif so that it attaches to something more common, something found on many types of neurons or cells in general.  But, that would destroy its specificity, its ability to induce a unique and frightening set of behaviors; it would just kill us.  No, dog soldiers and bioterror weapons will be the result of a pharmacological agent that modulates the receptors that are targeted by rabies.  It may be good theater to continue to have a virus be the means of producing werewolves and vampires, even zombies, but it will be straight-forward chemistry that makes these horrific visions come alive.  Civilized people and nations need to ensure that we understand how to defend against this before someone does turn it loose.  Is anybody listening?!

it's rabies, plain as the claws on your paws

Authors before me have hypothesized that rabies is at the root of werewolves and vampires.  Certainly many of the modern tales at least allude to a viral infection.  Specifically, Dr. Gomez-Alonso published a report (Neurology, 1998, 51:856-9.) drawing the link between rabies infection and the vampire legends.  He proposed “that rabies may have played a key role in the development of the vampire legend, given the coincident time of the phenomena and the striking similarities between them.”

Ian Woodward in his comprehensive analysis The Werewolf Delusion states “But I have no doubt that, because of the shared symptoms, a vast proportion of history’s dreaded “werewolves” were in fact either rabid wolves or their rabid human victims.  The facts seem to speak for themselves” (p. 168).

Yet, some authors discount this connection, although still noting the similarity over and over.  Most recently the book Rabid sought to sever the link.  Rabid is a wonderful compilation of information about rabies and other zoonotic diseases.  The authors give a number of reasons why rabies does not produce vampires and werewolves.  One possible anomaly is that vampires and werewolves can give long accounts of their behavior, seemingly in contrast to the short lifespan of the infected individual.  Yet, only a few pages earlier they note the case of Charles Lennox, governor-general of Canada in 1819.  He was bitten by a fox and contracted rabies.  He became lucid at various times during his madness, in one case dictating “a lengthy letter to his eldest daughter” (p.10).  And later, discussing the possibility that Edgar Allen Poe died from rabies, they again state “Rabies sufferers, by contrast, are prone to just these sorts of swings between delirium and lucidity” (p.108). As these authors note, this cycling is a notable, and perhaps one of the most heart-wrenching, aspects of rabies infection.  A person with rabies will have periods when they are fully aware of what’s been happening to them, and fully aware of what’s to become of them! 

It also seems to the authors of Rabid and many other investigators that the fact that victims of rabies infection die quickly once symptoms appear is at odds with the longevity of some imprisoned self-confessed vampires and werewolves.  However, not one of those self-confessed monsters turned into a vampire or werewolf while in the presence of authorities.  These people were certainly mentally ill, but they were not true vampires or werewolves, and they did not have rabies.  Moreover, especially in times before hospitals patients would have been treated at home.  As noted, many victims of rabies do, at times, understand what their fate will be and the danger they pose to family and friends.  This knowledge, coupled with rabies’s urges for the victim to escape any confines (real or apparent) and to roam resulted in many victims running away, into the forest, from which they might never be seen again.  Who’s to say they died… although almost certainly they did die from the rabies itself or from a foolish encounter with another predator.

Tuberculosis and porphyria are two other disorders often tried to be linked with vampires (but not werewolves).  In the case of tuberculosis the link is really to revenants with their sickly, ghostly appearance.  There is no room for werewolves, nor vampires, in this scenario. 

Nor does porphyria explain the primary behaviors of vampires and werewolves, that is, rage and blood-lust.  Porphyria produces a hypersensitivity to sunburn and therefore a healthy avoidance of direct sunlight.  This simply doesn’t compare with the active startle and apparent fearfulness of bright light, and sounds, associated with vampires and werewolves, and very prominent in people infected with rabies.  Porphyria may have provided people with the hope of a defense against vampires - that they would burn up in sunlight - but the message certainly didn’t get across to rabid bats and wolves (and beavers) that are notable for being seen openly during the daylight that they normally avoid.

There really is no doubt that rabies infection is the model for the behavior of vampires and werewolves.  Whether true vampires and werewolves exist may be another story, but it is clear that their behavior closely mimics that of rabies infection as well.  More intriguing, more frightening, and truly more hopeful, is that rabies infection allows us to understand that this behavior is a normal aspect of every human being – we each carry our own vampire and werewolf inside our own brains, and in some of us, they come out to romp at times of their own choosing.  This realization gives us hope to understand, and when necessary to treat our inner monsters.  That rabies infection is linked to our legends is very satisfying, but it is the fact that rabies draws out, in a consistent and predictable way, the set of rage behaviors that otherwise seem to be the work of some supernatural, at least subconscious, power over which we have no control.  We need to understand the workings of the rabies virus because then we will be able to obtain control, and understanding, of all that it means to be completely human.

Which came first, rabies or rabid creatures?

Which came first, rabies or rabid creatures?

In terms of when they first appeared, rabies is at least as old as vampires and werewolves.  Of course, this only means that they both appear in the earliest of human writings.  Rabies makes its way into our earliest books of law, not long after the advent of writing.  Rabies may be referred to in the Codex Eshnunna of ancient Mesopotamia (1930 B.C.E.).  A more definitive reference, specifically noting a mad dog, is found in the code of Hammurabi (1750 B.C.E.), still nearly 4,000 years ago.  To be specifically mentioned when writing was considered an essentially mystical creation meant only for demigod-like royalty strongly indicates that rabies infection was already a very prominent fear and a fairly common occurrence!

Rabies is well-documented within the pantheon of gods and goddesses of the earliest written European cosmologies.  Lyssa, the Greek goddess of rage - who has a rabid dog crowning her head - certainly dates from earliest Olympian cosmology.  The Romans had their own counterparts -- Ira, Furor, and Rabies.  Lyssa is perhaps best known for driving Hercules (Heracles) to madness during which he murdered his wife and child.  Many cosmologies have wolf gods, Fenrir in Norse mythology and Wepwawet in Egyptian, but their raging characters are a given rather than a unique excess that might be due to rabies infection. Of course, with wolves it’s best to presume they are rabid.

We have already noted that a werewolf, King Lycaon, is mentioned in Ovid’s Metamorphoses from around 1 C.E.   This story almost certainly followed the lead of earlier oral traditions.  Humans living and behaving like animals are fairly common in Greek tales – Circe certainly did a number on Odysseus’s crew.  But this jumbles lycanthropy into the mix.  Tales of werewolves exist, but are generally just added in to tales of shape-shifting in general.  Still, as King Lycaon’s tale attests, transformation into a werewolf has a specific character, and a specific implication, that is, the loss of social, civilized behavior, and of killing or turning new victims

Vampires, in their earliest form as revenants, are clearly noted in folktales from earliest times.  For historical purposes, these folktales were perhaps best kept alive in Eastern Europe where pantheistic, pre-Christian beliefs were still common at the same time the printing press was invented making preservation of oral traditions a reality.  As the modern (since the Americas were discovered) view of vampires did not coalesce until Europeans observed vampire bats (1600’s), it is difficult to directly or simply trace the early conceptions of vampires.  Many of the words from which vampire has been derived may originally have referred to witches.  Witches could turn people mad, or drove themselves into madness in search of mystical knowledge.  A deeper analysis of the origin may not be fruitful since vampires as we understand them almost certainly required the discovery of vampire bats to take on their distinctive, singular persona.

In summary, rabies, werewolves, and vampires have coexisted as far back as we can trace.  This doesn’t prove they are one and the same, but it is definitely consistent with that notion.  In concert with the similarity of behaviors and the commonality of how they are passed from one victim to another, it is almost impossible to deny their unity.

rabid humans

rabidity in humans

Characteristics of rabies in humans are very similar to those in other mammals, differences reflecting our basic differences in physiology, behavior, and culture.  I pause here to remind everyone that only mammals, including humans, are susceptible to rabies infection.  Gators and geese and giant anacondas can be very aggressive, but they cannot be rabid!

Hydrophobia is the classic symptom of rabies infection in humans as it is in other mammals, occurring in the vast majority of victims and unique to rabies.  Victims may initially experience pain in the throat or difficulty swallowing.  Symptoms progress to the point that when attempting to swallow water, the victim experiences contraction of the diaphragm and other muscles associated with breathing including the sternocleidomastoids and scalenes.  These spasms may be followed by contraction of neck muscles and may be associated with retching, vomiting, coughing, and grimacing, and even extending to convulsions and hypoxia.  Initially a direct reaction to trying to swallow water, these spasms soon become associated with the sight, sound, or even mention of water.  Water splashed on the skin can produce similar reactions (“I’m melting, melting.  Oh, what a world….”)

Increased saliva is apparent, but humans do not salivate heavily like dogs and wolves preparing to ingest a meal.  Spitting may be the main sign of increased saliva in humans rather than actual foaming at the mouth.  Difficulty in swallowing would, of course, increase the saliva retained in the mouth so that hypersalivation per se would not be necessary to pass on the virus to victims.

Agitation, increased anxiety, and irritation can be among the earliest symptoms in humans, as in other mammals.  This may lead to violence including kicking and biting.  The only documented case of human to human transmission of rabies is that of a rabid 5-yr old biting his mother on the finger.  The paucity of documented human-to-human transmission has led some experts to state that humans are “dead-end victims”.  Certainly in modern, civilized society, biting is strongly sanctioned from a very early age.  Clearly, however, biting has ever been a threat.  The ancient Greek combat sport of pankration had only two restrictions - no biting and no eye-gouging.  This was apparently ignored by Spartans who were therefore banned from the ancient Olympics.  Similarly, a colorful exhortation at the beginning of any boxing match or similar combat sport is to have a ‘clean fight, no biting or gouging, or hitting below the belt’.  To have been specifically banned in the earliest rules of boxing, e.g., the London Prize Ring Rules of 1853, indicates that biting was not uncommon. And, Mike Tyson biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear vividly reminds us that biting is still a very prepotent human behavior, not one to be dismissed lightly.  Biting has regained popularity in the actions people should consider using when defending themselves against physical attacks.  The dangers of human bites, rabid or not, are well-documented – our mouths are a treasure trove of bacteria.  Still, human teeth are not designed to rend or even penetrate fresh flesh like those of other carnivores.  Skinning, cooking, and the use of utensils are important to our ability to eat other animals.  As transmission of the rabies virus requires its insertion through the skin, humans are particularly poorly suited for the task.  My Mom even joked that she was evolving into a more civilized being because her canines were so small.  Still, although humans are poorly suited for transmitting rabies, we should recognize that biting was not uncommon among our ancestors and that human-to-human transmission probably did occur, especially during fights that would have created open wounds in which virus-laden saliva could penetrate.  Characterizing us as dead-end victims as far as rabies is concerned is true, but not accurate.

Restlessness, including escape from closed rooms, and roaming are notable traits of rabid humans.  Periods of agitation and disorientation occur, separated by periods of lucidity.  Episodes of confusion with hallucinations and aggressive behavior may occur for short periods of time.  These may be brought on by sensory stimuli, but may occur spontaneously.

Aerophobia is also a common symptom of rabies infection in humans.  A fan test, that is blowing air on a potential victim to observe their reaction, is a quick way to increase the suspicion that a person has been turned.  Bright lights and loud sounds can also trigger fearful reactions, muscular spasms, or attack-like behavior.  General hyperesthesia is also common.         

And, to the dismay of early, pious authors (or their editors), persistent priapism and recurrent ejaculation in men, and excessive libido in both genders has been reported.  Presumably, such symptoms are under-reported publicly, but can be found directly or alluded to in multiple reports.  For example, a woman “suddenly developed excessive sexual desire. This continued for three days. Her husband… had never noticed such behavior during nine years of married life.”  A few days later she developed the gold standard symptoms of rabies, and unfortunately succumbed.  Another report documents that recurrent ejaculation occurred in a patient at least eight hours before aerophobia was noted.  Reading between the lines of many early accounts, increased sexual behavior appears to be a common symptom of rabies infection.  Of particular note is that this increased sexual behavior can occur prior to other symptoms.  Thus, along with similar behaviors in other mammals, this ties in similar tendencies among reports of vampires (and werewolves, if they weren’t too busy giving their victims ferocious love nips…).  As the reader hopefully knows, nipping/biting is a common feature of frenzied sexual abandon.  Think only vampires and werewolves ‘vant to bite your neck’?  Think, no, feel, again!

Beavers in Belarus -- rabies is very alive

I have to interrupt the sequence of this blog to rail against additional victims of the rabies virus.  I’d like to think the report, with video, of a beaver attacking and killing a man is a hoax.  It is a sad and a horrific occurrence.  What it brings to the fore is that wild animals normally avoid open places during daylight – an unsheltered trail/road especially.  When one encounters an untamed animal out in the open, seemingly unaware or undisturbed by the presence of human beings, it’s a very good sign to avoid that animal.  It may appear cute or just interesting, but it almost certainly has rabies, and given the opportunity will attempt to pass the virus on.  Rabies may not create large epidemics, but it effectively manages to get passed on from one victim to another; this attack clearly shows how.

This latest incident is particularly sad because although the victim would likely have been exposed to rabies, we know that the rabies vaccine is very effective at capturing and ridding the body of the viral particles before they find the doorway into the central nervous system.  But, beavers have large, strong teeth and powerful jaw muscles that can rend trees to pieces.  They can easily rend human flesh.  In this case those teeth did the virus’s bidding too well, killing the victim before it could try to pass the virus on.

Sad also is the death of a soldier bitten while breaking up a fight between a dog, kept as a pet on his base, and another, feral, dog.  Eight months later he is dead. Why wasn't he immediately given the rabies vaccine!  Probably he was a bit embarrassed about allowing himself to be bitten, about breaking regulations and allowing a pet on base, about drawing attention to a dumb, little wound.  None of that matters; the virus doesn't give second chances.  He should have sought out and been given the rabies vaccine immediately and without any question!

Normally wild animals move away from humans.  When they don’t, the humans should move away!  People learn to avoid humans who exhibit the kind of explosive behavior the beaver displayed as well.  Unfortunately, these individuals don’t advertise their hair trigger volatility as clearly as a wild animal found rambling about in the open.  Or, we think we can change them with love and understanding, not realizing that these emotional time-bombs have little, if any, voluntary, conscious control over their behavior.  If only we could really help these people to reduce their volatility; allow them the time to be aware of their traits and to try to control themselves before they explode.  

Well, that’s the point of this blog, to say we can!  But, to do that, we must discover the root of how rabies manipulates our nervous system, how it turns us into human vampires and werewolves.  Then we will be able to treat the rampages.  We have the tools and the knowledge, we just need the will.

Rabidity in animals

Rabidity in animals

Of the symptoms of rabies infection in animals, hydrophobia, an aversion to water and especially the drinking of water, is a hallmark, and unique, sign.

Excessive salivation is frequently noted.  This is important because it is the saliva of the infected animal that contains the viral particles that must be passed on to a new victim, to turn them.

Nervousness and irritability are often noted; the infected animal exhibiting a posture and expression of alertness and anxiety.  Pupils are dilated; an indication of activation of the ‘fight or flight’ sympathetic nervous system.  

Infected animals are aggressive.  In response to the slightest provocation they may viciously and aggressively use teeth, claws, horns and hooves against animate and inanimate objects.  They may attack inanimate objects, such as the bars of a cage, with no apparent response to pain, to the point that they can break their teeth trying to bite through the bars.

Roaming is a strong characteristic, just walking and running.  Roaming is generally punctuated by multiple attacks on animals encountered.

Hyperactivity (and strong efforts to escape restrictions to movement such as cages), disorientation, and confusion are symptoms, extending to the observation that horses act as if they are blind.  In this confused state, rabid animals approach other animals they would normally avoid, humans for one.  A number of veterinarians report that rabid dogs or wolves commonly smell of skunk, indicating they have foolishly, and uncharacteristically, provoked a skunk.  Another fairly sure sign of rabies infection is a fox or coyote whose snout looks like a pin cushion, full of porcupine quills, indicative of an interaction they would normally avoid.  In addition, normally nocturnal animals, e.g. bats, are found in the open during daylight.

An infected animal will often withdraw from its companions, and go off roaming alone.  However, they may also seek comfort, such as a rabid pet kitten climbing up to lay in its owner’s lap, only to then bite the owner when it is petted.  It is reported that rabid bats emit a distress call resulting in other bats approaching the infected bat to comfort/protect it, only to become bitten themselves.  Whether these distress calls are simply signs of distress or a ruse to turn more victims is not possible to tell.  Either way, the result is that the rabid bat gains access to more victims.

Abnormal reactions to sensory stimuli are part and parcel of rabies infection in animals.  Aerophobia is often noted, denoting a fearful reaction to air movement.  Of particular interest is the common observation of photophobia, the apparent fear and avoidance of bright light.  General hyperesthesia, the fear or overreaction to sensory stimulation, including touch or noise in addition to those mentioned above, is found in most descriptions of rabid animals.  Sudden or annoying noises can provoke attacks by the rabid animal.

Finally, and importantly, priapism and increased libido are common descriptors of rabid animals.  They can be hypersexual in appearance and behavior.

Rabies is the model and the key to rage

Rabies is the model and the key to rage

The link connecting the animal counterparts of vampires and werewolves is exactly infection by the rabies virus.  This suggests that the behavior of rabid bats and wolves is very similar to characteristics of vampires and werewolves.  A seemingly straight-forward task is to list characteristics of a natural phenomenon, rabid animals, and determine how many are in common with both infected humans and with our legendary creatures.  Three factors will limit the information we can gather from naturally rabies-infected animals. 

The first limitation is the long and variable period of time from exposure from rabies to actual infection and concomitant behavioral effects.  In general, the pre-infection period lasts a few weeks to a month.  However, documented cases involving humans indicates that the period can be as long as a couple of years from exposure (bite, or organ transplant) to signs of infection and death.  And, prior to blatant infection with its overt characteristics, there are no known signs of impending disease.  Although bites by bats and wolves became associated with the subsequent occurrence of rabidity centuries ago, it is easy to understand how the long, unpredictable period between exposure and overt disease led our ancestors to associate rabidity with a more contemporary supernatural intervention rather than a long-forgotten bite.  In particular, the bite of a bat can be slight enough as to be overlooked and therefore no natural cause for disease may be evident when symptoms appear.  Only been the advent of modern forensic medical practice, with acceptance of, and tools to detect, bacteria and viruses, that searches diligently for just such a biological cause has been able to document rabies as an underlying mechanism .  Of course, discovering a biological cause is supposed to lead to prevention, medical treatment, and understanding of the disease.  With rabies, much of that is still only a dream.

Another limitation to the study of naturally occurring rabies infection is the brief amount of time from actual infection to death, two weeks at most.  This doesn't allow much time to observe behavioral and physiological symptoms, to put them through the battery of sophisticated tests that TV’s Dr. House would apply.  Worse, the infected animal/patient is trying to attack the observers (threatening to turn them) or is trying to escape, all while rapidly deteriorating toward death.

A third limitation is that the symptoms of rabies infections come in two flavors, furious or encephalitic rabies with its rage and attacks, and dumb or paralytic rabies primarily characterized by muscle weakness and ataxia.  These signs are not mutually exclusive, infected animals often exhibit signs of both, and muscle weakness is very often seen at the end-stage of both types.  Although we only know of one rabies virus, these different sequelae complicate that chance that one explanation, one disease, can suffice to account for what we know about it.  For our present purposes we will focus on furious rabies, always aware that we must combine the two forms under one explanation at some time.

Vampires and werewolves, even werecats, oh my…

Vampires and werewolves, even werecats, oh my…

As an aside of sorts, it seems surprising that werecats do not figure large in these legends and lore.  Large cats can attack and kill humans, certainly do kill large prey.  And cats are susceptible to infection by rabies.  Yet references, at least in European literature, to ravenous werecats are much less common compared with those regarding werewolves.  There are several factors that can account for this.  Attacks by cats, large and small, tend to be clean, often nearly bloodless, not in line with a lust for blood.  Killing, especially by large cats, is by asphyxiation, crushing the windpipe or by covering and closing off the prey’s snout.  House cats sever the spinal cord and/or windpipe, also resulting in death without bloodletting. In addition, felines tend to drag away and hide their kills, leaving no horrific trace for friends and relatives to find as in the case of wolf kills.  Moreover, the bite of a cat very likely ends in the victim’s death, not in injuries that could turn a survivor.  Cats inflict serious wounds through their claws, but because the transfer of rabies requires the introduction of virus-laden saliva into flesh and blood (as turning is said to require infection of the blood), survivors suffering scratches alone aren't going to acquire rabies; aren't going to be turned.  As frightening, as deadly, as wild cats can be, they don’t turn victims.  Not surprisingly then, werecats don’t figure large in our tales of blood-lust and rage in large part because they don’t produce rabid victims.

In addition, the paucity of ravenous werecats in European mythology is due to the fact that large cats, e.g. cave lions, were exterminated in Europe by 1000 AD, long before the printing press could make it easy to keep any such oral traditions alive.  Extant, much smaller, wild cats and their housecat relatives are more often depicted as witches eerily watching, but not attacking, humans. 

Ironically, in Westernized countries where pet dogs are routinely immunized against rabies, pet housecats have become the more common source of rabies exposure to humans, as they bite defensively when perturbed.

Vampires become the real deal

Vampires become the real deal

So, how is it these two fiends became so strongly associated?  The answer is that there are major traits of bats and wolves, vampires and werewolves that are strikingly similar.  Both are creatures of the night, bats almost exclusively.  Wolves can hunt both night and day, but their extremely sensitive night vision makes them especially successful at stalking prey in low light.  Human vision is suited for higher levels of light, where we can use our color vision to great advantage.  At night, we are the ones that are ‘blind as a bat’, while bats and wolves, vampires and werewolves, can sense us very well and appear to come out of nowhere to accost us. Both play heavily on our fear of the dark where wild things can sneak up on us. 

However, the greatest similarities between vampires and werewolves, beyond rage itself, are a thirst for blood, coupled with the ability to turn victims into new vampires or werewolves (respectively; only a very few, more recent – 17^th century - stories portray dead werewolves transforming into vampires).  A number of these characteristics are basic traits of wolves and other canidae.  Wolf-type and werewolf attacks are very bloody as they bite, chew, and rend flesh to fell their prey – bleeding out of the victim is common.  As Pavlov’s dogs remind us, canidae produce copious amounts of saliva in preparation for eating, literally foaming at the mouth, certainly also a vivid characteristic of werewolves.  Wolves gorge as much as they can at the site of the attack itself and then leave the bled-out carcass.  They may return later to feed further, but take few specific precautions to protect the carcass from other carnivores.  Evidence of their attacks is clear.   

On very much the other hand, Eurasian bats hunt only insects.  Normally they are just pesky nuisances to humans that are out at night.  However, when, and only when, infected with rabies, they will bite humans and the bite can draw blood.  This extraordinary change in their habits would have been enough to alarm people and to raise suspicions of witchcraft.  Only a few early versions of revenants portray them as lusting for blood to continue their unearthly life.  Since bats and revenants were associated in some ways (not quite dead yet…) and (rabid) bats bite humans, bats have always been associated, albeit weakly, with blood. However, when actual blood-sucking (well, blood-lapping) bats, the vampire bats of South and Central America, became known to Europeans in the mid-to-late 1500’s, the association of bats with a thirst for blood became an extraordinarily vivid reality.  The vision of vampire bats draining blood from apparently unaware (dazed, hypnotized…) victims confirmed the vampire’s blood-lust as real.  It also expanded the traits of humanesque vampires, affording them hypnotic powers that had not been a feature of earlier revenants or vampires, but are seen in many modern tales.

Long before bats became blood-thirsty, it was known that the bite of a (rabid) bat could turn a human or other mammal into a vampiric creature.  For bats, biting humans was a dramatic change from their normal behavior. The bite of a wolf was also well-known to result in the victim being turned.  As with bats, the association is specific for wolves infected with rabies.  Here the change in behavior is a bit more subtle, but more bloody.  Wolves do hunt humans and other mammals, but normally only when hungry.  When hunting for food they devour their victim – not much opportunity for the victim to be turned.  On the other hand, when rabid, wolves attack multiple victims without killing and eating them.  Under these conditions, victims could be left alive… to subsequently turn into rabid creatures themselves. And when rabid, wolves attack indiscriminately ignoring barriers such as fences that should warn them of dangers like humans.  Overall then, the primary association between bats and vampires, wolves and werewolves is their ability to turn victims into the likes of vampires and werewolves.  And, in both cases this is a direct result of rabies infection.  Blood-lust, at least bloody, is a primary feature of wolves and werewolves, but for vampires it seems more of an afterthought, not one noted in early descriptions.  But since Eurasian bats did bite mammals when rabid, it was a trait almost perfectly set in place just waiting for the conquistadores to confirm and embellish.

werewolves – no pesky nuisances here

werewolves – no pesky nuisances here

The origins of werewolves and their association with wolves are very different from those of revenants and vampires.  The first written account of a human becoming a werewolf may be in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (1 AD) in which the story is told of King Lycaon being transformed into a wolf by the king of the gods, Jupiter (Zeus, if ancient Greeks are telling the story).  Jupiter was disgusted that Lycaon served human meat for the god to eat (presumably Lycaon ate human flesh himself).  To emphasize that only animals, not civilized humans, ate human flesh, Jupiter transformed Lycaon into a werewolf.  As an animal, Lycaon could continue to feed on human flesh, but was utterly cut off from human company, from human society; was declared inhumane and non-human.  The image of a human being transformed into a wolf-like, uncivilized creature is a central theme of a werewolf. They are way more than pesky revenants, they are decidedly deadly. 

From Lycaon we also obtain the word and the concept of a lycanthrope or lycan, that is, a shape-shifter.  Shape-shifters are usually conceived as having the ability to change bodily forms at will.  It seems strange to me that Lycaon’s fate should be associated with shape-shifters since his transformation was neither self-induced, nor is there any indication he could ever change back into human form.  Even the lucky fellow chosen to become a werewolf at the festival of Jupiter Lycaon could only become human again if he did not eat human meat for nine years.  Fat chance.

Vampires, certainly revenants, are less often associated with shape-shifting, another difference between them and werewolves.  Some, especially Victorian, accounts of vampires have them shape-shift into bats.  Most recent stories give them tremendous speed and great strength letting them make huge leaps, but without wings (except, sometimes, for the old-timers, e.g. in “Únderworld”).  Perhaps the image of powerful vampires turning into scrawny little flying rats seems sissified, or turning into human-sized bats beyond the realm of modern credulity.

On the other hand, wolves and werewolves have no relationship with rebirth or returning from the dead, so central to the image of revenants.  They are strictly slingers of death, evil creatures in league with the devil.  To early shepherds wolves were terrifying enemies.  They were deadly threats to the unwary lone farmworker or traveler and to young damsels wearing red, hooded cloaks.  In spite of werewolves being human, they are straightforward extensions of wolves and wolf-like behavior.  This is very different from the fairly convoluted reasoning that originally linked bats to revenants and vampires. 

Nor do vampires cycle between being human and being a vampire as werewolves are forced to do when a full moon rises.  They may try to disguise themselves to walk among humans, but they are always vampires.  And, although they may sleep for long stretches of time, they wake up at will.  Overall then, vampires, as related directly to revenants, appear to be very distinct from werewolves.