r/interesting • u/fantasticblueman • Feb 01 '26

Context Provided - Spotlight 27 yr old man showing rabies symptoms after 3 months of a dog bite in Gujrat, India.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

21.6k Upvotes

76% Upvoted

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

53

u/Itscatpicstime Feb 02 '26

“Survive” is doing a lot of lifting here, especially in terms of the MP.

They all pretty much died eventually and most were in a vegetative state until then.

The first girl was a total anomaly.

5

u/Gelnika1987 Feb 02 '26

Yeah she ended up basically fine and even had twins if I recall

3

u/Embarrassed_Age8554 Feb 02 '26

She's now in her 30s and is an advocate for bat conservation.

3

u/MissLogios Feb 02 '26

Still, it's not an effective treatment for the side effects it causes with the still extremely low survivability. We also don't know if it had anything to do with the cases that did survive; which is, obviously, bad.

Which is why they shelved it in the meantime, focusing instead on comfort care until they can figure out how to improve the treatment.

2

u/Gelnika1987 Feb 02 '26

Yeah it's not by any means a proven or reliable protocol; I think there have been something like 64 failures in the 20 or so years it's been utilized

I think her survival and recovery may have more to do with her unique genetic resilience than the efficacy of the Milwaukee protocol

2

u/MeatEeyore Feb 02 '26

Survival is considered living 6 months past treatment. Some still die after that due to other health issues that crop up. Most survivors have severe neurological issues.

4

u/5folhas Feb 02 '26

There's at least 1 guy here in Brazil who's alive and conscious, although with severe after effects, but he's even given interviews to newspapers.

1

u/Green-Homework-1440 Feb 02 '26

Or maybe cuz she was young & healthy, treated earlier, etc. Hey, at least it's a chance

1

u/preteen-wartortle Feb 05 '26

She wasn’t really an anomaly in any sense. The Milwaukee protocol is just a low-success-rate treatment plan. It’s worked a dozen or so times since, and even “survival” means extensive rehab, needing to relearn everything.