1. Rabies William T. Kratz

2. Rabies The Rabies virus infects the central nervous system, causing brain disease and eventually death The Rabies virus belongs to the genus Lyssavirus and the family Rhabdoviridae Rabies is a negative stranded RNA virus which is distributed across most continents The first accounts of Rabies are described by Babylonians from the 23 rd century B.C. Greek word for Rabies is “lyssa” which translates to “violent” In 19 th century Europe rabies was a rampant disease, those infected would kill themselves or be killed In 1885, Louis Pasteur introduced the first successful post-exposure treatment An estimated 40,000 + people die worldwide from rabies each year

3. Infection and Replication All mammals are at risk of getting rabies! The most common transmission of the disease is through a bite from an animal that has infectious saliva. Although uncommon other modes of transmission have been documented: contamination of mucous membranes aerosol transmission corneal and organ transplantations.

4. Infection and Replication

5. Host Animals Although all mammals are susceptible to the Rabies virus, a certain few can be more efficient reservoir hosts for the disease In 2001, 93% of all documented cases of Rabies came from wild animals: Raccoons 37.2% Skunks 30.7% Bats 17.2% Foxes 5.9% Coyotes 0.7%

6. Sources http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/ http://www.fas.org/ahead/docs/rabies.htm http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Lyssavirus http://rabies.emedtv.com/rabies/animals-with-rabies.html