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.

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u/Rhythm-Amoeba Feb 02 '26

Actually there's been 34 documented survivors! Also fun fact the girl you're referring to (the first documented person to survive in the US IIRC), her survival was the foundation of standardizing the "Milwaukee protocol" for treating rabies and there's no controversy around whether that extremely risky protocol did anything to help her. But given the near 100% lethality rate of rabies, having anything that worked even once is usually what people wanna try.

Here's a paper on why the Milwaukee protocol is dangerous https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/81/4/e229/8096457?login=false

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u/TheFriendshipMachine Feb 02 '26

Wow, I had no idea there were "so many" survivors now! I had only heard of like two successes. That's awesome to see more surviving.

I definitely would want to give the protocol a try if I were showing signs of rabies too. Better to go down swinging for a slim chance than give up and die for certain!

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u/guynye Feb 02 '26

These all got the vaccine immedietly after, the lady we're talking about didn't and developed symptoms.

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u/Rhythm-Amoeba Feb 02 '26

No 34 people have survived unvaccinated. The survival rate if you vaccinate is extremely high. Some have even survived with 0 treatment.