Recent Rabies in People

Between 1980 and September 2002, 46 people in the United States died of laboratory confirmed rabies. 1 The majority of cases were diagnosed at postmortem. The presence of hydrophobia or aerophobia was significantly associated with antemortem diagnosis. None of the people received complete postexposure prophylaxis prior to the onset of clinical disease. This is unfortunate as treatment with modern tissue culture vaccines, coupled with the appropriate use of immune globulin, is regarded as essentially 100% effective. 2 Of the 46 human cases, 63 percent were associated with rabies virus variants found in insectivorous bats. Nevertheless, clear evidence of a bite was found in only two of the bat-associated cases.