To the Editor: Rabies is caused by 12 recognized virus species within the Lyssavirus genus (family Rhabdoviri-dae) (1) and each year causes 55,000 deaths worldwide among humans. In Europe, the main reservoir and vector of rabies is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), followed by the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in central and Baltic Europe (2). Among these virus species, the rabies virus (fo...

Yunnan Province in China borders 3 countries (Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar) in Southeast Asia. In the 1980s, a large-scale rabies epidemic occurred in this province, which subsided by the late 1990s. However, 3 human cases of rabies in 2000 indicated reemergence of the disease in 1 county. In 2012, rabies was detected in 77 counties; 663 persons died of rabies during this new epidemic. Fifty two ...

A major challenge in systems neuroscience is to unravel the complex matrix of connections that characterize functional circuits within the central nervous system. Retrograde transneuronal transport of rabies virus has proven to be especially useful for this purpose. Here we provide specific examples in which transneuronal transport of rabies virus has been used to unravel multi-synaptic pathway...

Cytolytic T lymphocyte precursors (CTL-P) were sensitized in vivo by intraplantar infection of C57BL/6 mice with a lethal dose of rabies virus, strain ERA (ERA). As a result of sensitization CTL-P matured to interleukin-receptive CTL-P (IL-CTL-P) that could be expanded in vitro to Thy-1+, Lyt-2+ CTL clones in the presence of IL without subjection to antigen-driven selection. After infection wit...

In the United States, during the past half-century, the number of humans to die of rabies dramatically decreased to an average of 1-2 per year. Although the number of deaths is low, most deaths occur because individuals are unaware that they had been exposed to and infected with rabies virus, and, therefore, they do not seek effective postexposure treatment. Molecular epidemiological studies ha...

Taiwan had been considered rabies free since 1961. In 2013, Taiwan confirmed the detection of rabies virus in wild Taiwan ferret-badgers. Up to December 2014, there have been 423 rabies-confirmed ferret-badgers and three cases of spillover infection into non-reservoir hosts. Genetic analysis indicates that TFBV is distinct from all other known rabies virus variants. To date, ferret-badger rabie...

BACKGROUND The rabies virus causes a fatal encephalitis and can be transmitted through organ transplantation. In 2013, a man developed rabies 18 months after receiving a kidney from a donor with rabies, who was not known to have been infected when the organs were procured. Three additional persons who received organs from the same donor (liver, kidney, heart), all of whom were not vaccinated fo...

Rabies is an acute, fatal, neurological disease that affects almost all kinds of mammals. Vaccination (using an inactivated rabies vaccine), combined with administration of rabies immune globulin, is the only approved, effective method for post-exposure prophylaxis against rabies in humans. In the search for novel rabies control and treatment strategies, live-attenuated viruses have recently em...

The sensitivities of BHK-21 (C-13) and murine neuroblastoma (C-1300; clone NA) cells for the isolation of small quantities of a street strain rabies virus were compared. Suspensions of brain from mice sacrificed prior to the onset of clinical signs of rabies were used to stimulate weakly positive diagnostic specimens. The results of cell culture isolation were compared with those of the direct ...

An in situ hybridization (ISH) method has been developed to overcome difficulties encountered in the viral typing of formalin-fixed rabies virus-infected brain tissue. Rabies viruses representative of all strains normally encountered in diagnostic submissions throughout Canada, including 3 strains of terrestrial hosts (arctic fox, western skunk, mid-Atlantic raccoon), 10 strains circulating in ...