Friends of the Animals

An unusual drug combination that helped an unvaccinated teenager survive rabies has failed to save three other infected children, federal health officials reported.

It wasn’t clear why the treatment succeeded with one child and failed with the others. Factors could include the strain of the virus, the dosing of the drugs and the time between infection and treatment, said Dr. Charles Rupprecht, chief of the rabies program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

”We believe speed is of the essence,” said Rupprecht, a co-author of a report in this week’s issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. More of this article….  

Also see: Rabies Rescue Protocol Fails in New Cases

For more information on rabies visit the CDC’s Rabies site.