Rabies

[ZR1cliff]

Why not to go near an animal on holiday,scarey!

http://www.itv.com/news/index_1689955.html

[mechsympathy]

You can get it from an animal lick if your skin is broken, it can take up to a year to become symptomatic, there's no cure once you're symptomatic but if you get the jabs within 24 hours of infection you stand a chance (and even if you've had the vaccine that only gives you a day extra to get treatment)

Now I understand why my folks went ape if I played with animals on holiday

(This is all IIRC, but I'm pretty sure I do RC.)

[scared but happy]

I also believe someone caught it off a bat in Scotland not that long ago. NASTY

[nubbin]

Rabies is a viral encephalitis (brain inflammation) and it's incubation can be up to about 6 months - that depends entirely on where the virus enters the body, because it then travels slowly along the nerves until it gets to the brain - then you die. A bite on the foot -> long incubation; on the face, a week or so to live. Basically it has 100% mortality!!

[Einion Yrth]

nubbin said:

Basically it has 100% mortality!!

One known survivor, last November in Wisconsin, pretty poor odds tho'