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!