I’ve been learning some about rabies and learned about rabies causing hydrophobia. This is just a theory, I’m not saying I know anything about this topic to be knowledgeable, but if we could get someone with rabies to not fear water, could they survive?

  • count_of_monte_carlo@lemmy.worldM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    8 months ago

    The Milwaukee Protocol is a treatment plan that is essentially a more advanced version of what you’re asking. The patient is put in a medically induced coma and then given antivirals and IV fluids, which avoids the issue of hydrophobia.

    It got a lot of press because one person survived on it (a big deal given that rabies is a death sentence once symptoms appear) but this success hasn’t been reproduced with other patients. A paper on the protocol has a remarkably blunt title: Critical Appraisal of the Milwaukee Protocol for Rabies: This Failed Approach Should Be Abandoned.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      8 months ago

      and didnt they use it on that girl that survived cause she didnt report the bite until it was too late, so it was either try something dangerously crazy like Mulwaukee Protocol, or just die miserably?

      • rudyharrelson@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        8 months ago

        I guess whether this protocol should be abandoned, rather than iterated on to improve its chances of success, to me, depends on the effect the coma has on the patient’s quality of life while the protocol is attempted. It’s arguably more humane to put someone in a medically induced coma while they’re still sane. If the protocol fails, the patient is at least not conscious while their brain is deteriorating.

        I’m gonna go watch House.

    • Dogyote@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      8 months ago

      Critical Appraisal of the Milwaukee Protocol for Rabies: This Failed Approach Should Be Abandoned

      Well you got a better idea?

      I looked, and they don’t.

      • xkforce@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        Yes. Get vaccinated before symptoms appear. If you don’t, you are almost guaranteed to die no matter what intervention is attempted.

        • GluWu@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          8 months ago

          We should make a new protocol where if you didn’t get the vaccine, we just fucking kill you.