Rabbits and Rabies

 

Louis Pasteur holding rabbits, which were used to help develop the vaccine for rabies. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Pasteur (building on ideas from others) figured out that if a germ was made weak, you could give it to a person or animal and they will only get a little sick, but would become immune to the disease.

But rabies back then was a horrible disease and still is fatal. So how could he make the infection weak? By injecting it cross species into rabbits. The virus would be weak, but as it was inoculated into the next rabbit, would become stronger. So make a vaccine from the first rabbit and gradually use material from the later, stronger infected rabbits.

this works because unlike other illnesses, the period between being infected and developing the disease with rabies may be weeks or even months.

Here in the Philippines, about 300 people die of rabies each year. Indeed, our town just lost a young girl bitten by a street dog who didn't tell her mom about the bite.

 Sigh

references: Nature

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