Carly Hans

ISM- Period 7

“First Case of Human Rabies in Chile Caused by an Insectivorous Bat Virus Variant - Volume 8,

Number 1-January 2002 - Emerging Infectious Disease Journal - CDC.” Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 July

2010, < wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/8/1/01-0108_article >

 Feb. 13, 1996, 7-year-old boy went to hospital for dizziness in Chile
 Child acted normal
 Excessive drool, left droopy eye, and unequal pupil size were his main symptoms
 Child had no sensory loss
 CAT scans came back normal
 Feb. 15, 1996, paralysis began to occur and respiratory problems became present
 Child still was aware and follow answers
 Feb. 18, 1996, boy went into a coma
 No electrical activity in brain
 CAT scan showed his brain swelling
 Tested for viruses such as herpes, polio, measles, echo, and coxsackie, but all were
negative.
 Interviews showed that there was a bat in the house around child's toys
 Feb. 26, 1996, serum sample and corneal smear were sent to a rabies lab
 Samples were negative
 March 4, 1996, a serum sample, cerebrospinal fluid, and a saliva sample were taken and
sent
 Clinically tested positive for rabies
 Patient died on March 5, 1996 one day after samples were taken
 After the death of the patient, samples of the skin, hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and
cerebellum were taken
 Skin and cerebellum samples had rabies antigens present
 Vaccine was giving to patient’s mother and 10 health care workers that had possible
contact with patient’s saliva.
 Not uncommon to see rabies cases that did not consists of an animal bite
 Common for patients to be bit by a bat and not know or not able to detect the bite from
their small teeth
 Cases with unknown causes to damage in the central nervous system should be tested for
rabies

This is the case study of the first know human patient that contracted the rabies virus.
 Carly Hans
ISM- Period 7

Smith, Yolanda. “Rabies History.” News-Medical.net, AZO Network, 28 Apr. 2015,

www.news-medical.net/health/Rabies-History.aspx.

 Rabies has been around since ancient times

 Written about in many pieces of literature
 Aristotle wrote about it in 300 BC
 Known as a disease spread from dog to dog
 The “biting” disease
 Owner of dogs with rabie like symptoms are to be extra careful it does not bite
 Popularity of disease varied from region to region
 Time period also affected popularity of disease
 Some places were thought to be rabie free
 All dependent on migration of animals
 The 20th century is when disease started to become less common
 Started to become less popular in developed countries
 Central Europe had the most decrease of the disease in the 20th century
 One theory of the decrease in the disease is the introduction of the vaccine
 Other factors involve climate and populations view on pets
 18th century, some countries (Germany, France, Spain) made it a law to destruct every
stray dog to avoid the spread of the virus
 Public did not like the law
 Law was not enforced enough
 Quarantine was introduced in the 19th century for animals showing symptoms of rabies
 Done to help contain the virus but also for research purposes
 Number of people affected by rabies decreased
 By 20th century, many regions were “virus-free”
 Pasteur was the first person to offer a possible rabies vaccine in 1885
 Was not practiced until 1920’s
 Became practiced when animal vaccinations become a frequent thing
 If 70% of domestic pets were vaccinated, possibility of the virus being extinct in the
region
 Once the vaccine became common, the drop of rabies cases significantly decreased
 Today there is no treatment or cure for rabies
 If exposed to rabies, a post exposure prophylaxis is done
 A 30 day process of injecting rabies immunoglobulin and the vaccine soon after exposure
 95% of human cases occur in Africa and Asia where the medical treatment is very limited

This article is a summary of the history of the rabies virus, when it was first recorded and how
the human population viewed the topic.
 Carly Hans
ISM- Period 7

“Rabies.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, 22 Apr. 2011, www.cdc.gov/rabies/transmission/virus.html.

 Bullet shaped virus

 10 nm spikey glycoprotein peplomers all on the outside of the virus
 About 400 of the spikes per virus
 Ribonucleoprotein is inside of the virus
 Ribonucleoprotein is made of RNA
 Rhabdoviridae family because of its bullet shape
 Viruses in this family are typically 180nm long and 75nm wide
 Rabies has 5 proteins (nucleoprotein, phosphoprotein, matrix protein, glycoprotein,
polymerase)
 2 main structures
 Helical ribonucleoprotein core (RPN)
 RPN consists of the polymerase and the phosphoprotein
 RNA is fused together with the nucleoprotein
 Matrix protein is believed to be the base composition of the virus
 Matrix protein is found in both the RPN and the shell
 The shell is the second main structure
 The different layers of the virus are envelope membrane bilayer, matrix protein, RNA
tightly squished together.
 Single stranded
 Antisense
 Nonsegmented
 Leader-sequence (LDR) of about 50 nucleotides
 First virus is absorbed
 Virus goes into the cytoplasm of the host's cells
 Does so by pinocytosis (clathrin coated pits)
 Virus meets in the large endosomes
 Virus sticks to the large endosome to prevent being pushed out
 While in the large endosome the virus copies its own RPN to be released into the cell’s
cytoplasm
 RNA must be transcribed to allow the replication of the virus
 While attached in the large endosome, the virus’ outer coat sheds and releases its RPN
 While translation happens, it produces all of the proteins needed to make up the virus
 Protein synthesis occurs in the free ribosomes in the cell

This article talks about the details of how this virus works, how it infects the host, how it is
composed, and what it is composed of.