Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

sciguy52 t1_jdkixla wrote

Rabies does not compel an animal to bite. I causes an animal to lose some natural fear of humans which makes them more likely to be near or approach a person. The animal itself is likely disoriented, confused or perhaps delirious (we can't tell what an animal thinks but know what happens in humans). So the animals brain is not working right, it is not experiencing its usual fear of things, and probably is quite confused and just reacts to whatever is near by biting.

173

the_quark t1_jdlarvk wrote

And this is why human-to-human transfer of rabies is very rare. Even confused, aggressive, delirious humans don't generally tend to bite as their main attack.

111

PezzoGuy t1_jdmlaqe wrote

Funny enough, the zombie virus from the game Dying Light is a strain of rabies based on this very misconception.

Granted, for video game logic, "less fear of attacking/biting others" to "active desire to attack/bite others" isn't the worst jump in logic I've seen.

31

Person012345 t1_jdnptqr wrote

I don't know about Dying Light but most instances of zombie fiction where the zombie disease is caused by a variant of rabies, it's usually taken to be a novel strain of rabies that DOES cause excessively aggressive behaviour in it's hosts. It would seem kinda silly to just say "it's rabies" because we have rabies in the real world and we don't (yet) have a zombie apocalypse.

6

Pyroclastic_Hammer t1_jdmcdbc wrote

Some fun bedtime reading for you kids.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/05/30/153989768/bath-salts-drug-suspected-in-miami-face-eating-attack

​

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2019/03/29/florida-man-in-face-eating-attack-believed-he-was-half-man-half-dog-doctor-says/

2

kaoscurrent t1_jdn04ba wrote

I still remember this like it was yesterday. My friends and I were so sure it was the start of the zombie apocalypse

6

dramignophyte t1_jdmg76m wrote

What im hearing is "if we use it just right, like we do with botox, we can get a super drug to treat social anxiety."

18

OurUrbanFarm t1_jdn01co wrote

This is the correct answer. In my years working in wildlife rehabilitation, I handled multiple rabies positive animals, primarily infected bats and fox and one skunk. Each of them displayed symptoms typical of distemper, which, in many wild animals, can cause neurological disorders.

They are often confused, are incapable of fleeing and are therefore, more likely to bite because they are more likely to come in contact with humans.

2