What Happens When You Get Rabies?

Rabies may have lead to legends of werewolves, vampires, and zombies. And while it’s preventable, it still plagues around 60,000 people a year.

↓Want more gross info?↓

WHO on Rabies:

CDC on Rabies:

Rabies surveillance in the United States during 2014:

Map of US human rabies deaths from 2003-July 2014 drawn from data here:

Many thanks to Nyar Lathotep for pointing out that the Laws of Eshnunna (the tablets I speak about at the end of the piece) were clay tablets, not stone, and date to the Old Babylonian period.
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Host, Writer, Editor
Anna Rothschild

Camera, Sound, Research
K Melvin

Nature’s World 3
Horrendous Crimes
Unwanted Assignment Main underscore
Biotic Factor b
The Human Kernal a
Music Provided by APM

Special Thanks to Dr. Ryan Wallace

GROSS FOOTAGE AND STILLS

Original Footage
©WGBH Educational Foundation 2017

The Wolf Man (1941)
Universal Pictures

Nosferatu (1922)
Jofa-Atelier Berlin-Johannisthal, Prana-Film GmbH

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Image Ten, Laurel Group, Market Square Productions
The Nervous System

Circulatory Control

Nursing Care of the Sick and Injured

Close-up of dog’s face during late-stage “dumb” paralytic rabies
CDC/Barbara Andrews

"Rabies and hydrophobia..." George Fleming 1872 Wellcome L0018105
Wikimedia Commons/George Fleming

Canine suspected of being rabid and aggressive
CDC

Rabies control in the community
US National Library of Medicine

Rabies Patient
CDC

Senses of Man

Tri-colored bat (6022400811)
Wikimedia Commons/Gary Peeples/USFWS

Presence of dog-transmitted human rabies based on most recent data points from difference sources, 2010-2014
WHO

Middle Ages rabid dog
Wikimedia Commons/Scanned from Dobson, Mary J. (2008) Disease, Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Quercus, p. 157

Map of rabies cases in the US since 2003

GROSS SFX
Cockroaches
Freesound/StateAardvark­
(used with permission from author)

Squeak Pack/squeak_10
Freesound/Corsica_S

Wink
Freesound/Bennychico11

Produced by WGBH for PBS Digital Studios

[lunakelly]

there's a free annual rabies vaccine in my city. And we don't even have to leave the house since every summer, the city vet would go door to door to administer free vaccines to pets.

[ashknoecklein]

How did rabies-infected corneas and other tissues end up donated to a patient? This is probably my recurring nightmare now.

[ShubhamBhushanCC]

I have a huge phobia of rabies. So much so I still haven't read the Wikipedia article.

[iliketrainskid]

Rabies vaccines for pets are legally REQUIRED in the US!

[mix]

So doctor, do i have rabies?

Doc:Short answer.Yes.

Patient:What's the long answer?

[nickryan]

Am I the only one who have a really bad Rabies phobia

[sdavis]

Anti-vaccers should be forced to watch this...

[zappadow]

You could technically start a zombie apocalypse using rabies

[ashleypayette]

"The symptoms it causes are like something out of a horror movie"
Cujo, anyone?

[FerdinandZebua]

“What is rabies?” Rabies is the YouTube comments section.

[catpoke]

_Lives in Texas_
"There's a really low chance you'll ever contract rabies"
_Texas is 5-6 on the scale of deaths by rabies_
My real reaction: Hoh! ;_;

[azfarulnaim]

This is actually quite helpful because there's rabies outbreak recently in my country! Glad Im subscribed to this awesome channel!

[anthonywooldridge]

If you have a nightmare about being attacked by a rabid animal, then I hope you haven't seen the movie Cujo.

[gaybrahamlinkedin]

I love how Texas and California are bright red 😂.

[mixey]

You:" Just give it to me straight doc"
Doc: "Yes, you do have Rabies"
You: " Gosh but it's curable right, what do I need to do?"
Doc: " Lets start by recording your will"

[idontknowanymore]

Yes! More Gross Science!!! I love this channel! Keep up the great work!

[pathoesr]

I had a rabid bat in my wall once:

When i was a kid I loved science and animals. I really wanted to bee an animal biologist.

Although I was also really strange apparently. My parents would nod off my jabbering. I was 12, that happens.

So when i stated waking up in the middle of the night because of scratching, clawing, screaming etc. night and day. I complained about it. It got passed off.

After I don't know how long, my Dad finally goes in my room to prove it's in my head. Sun goes down after a while. Nope, see it was nothing!

Loud squeal, scratch scratch -I still remember the horror on my dad's face. Priceless.

He goes in my wall from the outside and tears it apart. We still don't know how they got in there, but ones alive, rabid and the other is dead. My dad kills it, takes their bodies out and leaves them in the yard.

By this point he was exhausted. I don't think he slept the night prior. He was like "yah, I got them they're in the yard" elaborates more on the deception talking to wife/ mother of child me. Turns out that one had gone through the insulation/ dry wall were almost into my room.

"So it had rabies and you left them in the yard?"

"Yeah" he talks to mom some more.

"Isn't that bad for the cats?"

(The cats in my neighborhood had turf wars and our house was the best vantage point)

My dad immediately goes back outside and puts a bucket over them. He burns their bodies the next day.

And that how my parents learned to listen to their kids. <3

[MedicEne]

Does it matter where on your body you get bitten for a better prognosis, so would you have a better chance of surviving if bitten on your foot than neck, as the virus has to travel more distance ?

[shirel.a]

Meanwhile Im hearing weird noises in the night outside armed with nothing but a cheap bucket and a small flashlight and calling out with the same noise and getting replied with that unknown animal

[kittykittensfanthatshehate]

I love this person if she were my age she would be my best friend cuz we both love the same things
1: animals
2: science facts
3: diseases (not to get them)