- Hello, Jeff - You might want to add this to the article
on the multistate alert- rebies virus, as I am sure others have also noted
the errors.
-
- The Promed moderator indcated that the rabies vaccine
is now a "one short" regimen. This is untrue. The moderator
also made rabies sound a bit innocuous with regard to bat infections.
-
- Below is information that clarifies the promed moderator's
post.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
- Date: 7 Sep 2004
- From: Bob Harris
-
- The moderator noted that post-exposure prophylaxis against
rabies is no longer 20 shots in the stomach, which is true.
-
- I think it advisable, however, to point out that neither
is it a single shot, as mentioned in the 1st article. To the best of my
understanding under current CDC guidelines, post-exposure prophylaxis for
persons not pre-exposure vaccinated currently consists of a regimen of
1 dose of RIG (Rabies ImmunoGlobulin) and 5 doses of HDCV (Human Diploid
Cell Vaccine) over a 28-day period.
-
- -- Bob Harris
- Certified Animal Control Officer
- County of Bergen, NJ
- shelcon2000@yahoo.com
-
- http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00056176.htm
-
- [2]
- Date: 7 Sep 2004
- From: Andrew Busby
-
- I note that one of the articles in the advisory states
that rabid bats are (by implication) easily recognized by behavioral changes.
The literature (and personal experience) doesn't indicate this. Rabies
is an old disorder of bats. [To state that] it seems to have reached a
state of relative innocuousness would be incorrect, as bats do die of rabies.
However, many do not die, and long-term survival (indeed, recovery) is,
uniquely among these mammals, both possible and apparently frequent.
-
- The literature indicates bats can survive at least 18
months (through a hibernation cycle) and still shed virus. One should not
assume that a bat "acting normally" is necessarily uninfected.
Since the ice age, the virus has likely had to come to a kind of equilibrium
in bats, and does not affect them as it does other mammals. This seems
to be especially true of insectivorous bats. Think, perhaps, of the specificity
of herpes ...the virus among bats is well-adapted. --
- A.D. Busby
- shubelmorgan@medscape.com
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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