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26/11/2004
Teenager in Wisconsin recovers from rabies
A teenage girl in Wisconsin seems to have made medical history for being the first person to survive rabies after the onset of symptoms.
The 15-year-old girl, who was bitten by a rabid bat, was admitted to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin displaying overt symptoms of the disease. Doctors decided to adopt an experimental and untried approach that would attempt to contain the symptoms of the usually fatal stage of the disease.
Rabies can be treated if the disease has not progressed too far. The standard approach is an inoculation protocol that helps the body's own immune system produce antibodies that fight the virus.
But faced with a patient displaying advanced symptoms including slurred speech, blurred vision and episodes of unconsciousness, doctors used drugs that protected the nervous system from the effects of the virus while allowing the disease to run its course.
Following a week of the drug regime, doctors found that antibodies against rabies were present, further tests conducted and verified by the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, later revealed that virus had been successfully overcome by the immune system and was not detectable.
The girl, who is reported to be "weak but recovering", has yet to be fully assessed by clinicians for any potential long-term affects of the disease or the drugs utilised, in particular any resulting neurological problems.
Details of the drug regime will be published in a forthcoming medical journal, but doctors have warned that it could not yet be considered as a treatment as it would have to be proven to be effective in other similar patients.
(SP/GMCG)
The 15-year-old girl, who was bitten by a rabid bat, was admitted to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin displaying overt symptoms of the disease. Doctors decided to adopt an experimental and untried approach that would attempt to contain the symptoms of the usually fatal stage of the disease.
Rabies can be treated if the disease has not progressed too far. The standard approach is an inoculation protocol that helps the body's own immune system produce antibodies that fight the virus.
But faced with a patient displaying advanced symptoms including slurred speech, blurred vision and episodes of unconsciousness, doctors used drugs that protected the nervous system from the effects of the virus while allowing the disease to run its course.
Following a week of the drug regime, doctors found that antibodies against rabies were present, further tests conducted and verified by the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, later revealed that virus had been successfully overcome by the immune system and was not detectable.
The girl, who is reported to be "weak but recovering", has yet to be fully assessed by clinicians for any potential long-term affects of the disease or the drugs utilised, in particular any resulting neurological problems.
Details of the drug regime will be published in a forthcoming medical journal, but doctors have warned that it could not yet be considered as a treatment as it would have to be proven to be effective in other similar patients.
(SP/GMCG)
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