Rabies

The Beeb reports three people in Germany died of rabies after organ donations...
I didn't know rabies still existed in the pristine utopia of the European Union...
The reason I bring it up is that last year several people from Texas also were transplanted with rabies infected organs...
We sometimes use Texan organs in our Okie patients, and had a patient die after receiving a heart a couple months earlier, so it got my attention, but not much press...
Rabies still exists in the wilds of the USA.
When I lived in the pristine utopia of Massachusetts thirty years ago, one of our patients, a sweet little seven year old girl, opened a door and was bit by a bat, which flew off.
Alas, bats rarely bite people, and bats in rural Massachusetts have been tested positive for rabies.
So we got her the vaccine: Back then, it was 26 doses, subcutaneous, two or three times a week.
By the twentieth dose, she was getting severe local allergic reactions...poor child. Luckily now we only need three shots...
But there was another story...the series of vaccines cost about 600 dollars, a lot of money back then. Our office bought it, but the patient had no insurance, so we billed her county public health office...the office said the bill used most of their yearly budget.
Puts things into perspective...
Cows and cats and racoons also carry rabies.
And in Africa, a dog bit also is a major danger.
In our area, they would go thru every three years or so, vaccinate and paint the domestic dogs, then put out meat and shoot any unpainted dog.
After independence, some countries had resurgence of rabies, because they could not afford bullets and paying a sharpshooter...
Again puts things into perspective....
Luckily, I have never seen a case...
Louis Pasteur, call your office....